Star Trek: Augustus
by DavidMc
Summary: Set in the Star Trek universe, amid the Dominion wars, Star Fleet is still reeling from the invasion from the Delta Quadrant and the influx of Jem'Hadar soldiers. The U.S.S Augustus is a newly commissioned ship on its first mission under the command of Commander Marcus Ohlson
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

They were one week out from Starbase 283, and it was only now that they were being briefed.

The admiral stood beside the screen. It showed a three-dimensional picture of an unspecified region of space. In one corner it contained several star systems, and a dust nebula, there was little else.

The room was dark and filled with twelve men and women, the admiral and two others were on a dais, the other nine sat around the large conference table and faced the projection.

'The nebula has not been named by us, but the Cardassians called it 'The Gokija Expanse'. Gokija is a place in Cardassian legend where demons and ogres live. The Expanse is a dangerous place, little of worth has been discovered there, and the area is filled with active ion storms, large particle clouds and geologically unstable planetoids. The Cardassians left it pretty much alone.'

The picture zoomed into a cloudy section of the nebula; it was filled with reds and whites.

'In the section being magnified,' Admiral Slaney paused to allow the presentation of go to full magnification, 'there is a planet, Class 'Y'.

'A Demon class planet, they're rare,' whispered Deborah Mc Sorley. She leant forward expecting to hear more about that rare phenomenon.

Beside her around the conference table Marcus Ohlson ignored her comment and brought his attention back to the admiral and the briefing.

'Yes, as some of you have already remarked,' said the admiral, 'it is a Demon class, the most inhospitable class known.

This planet has five satellites, three are no larger than big boulders, one of the others is the site of an old tracking station, now a penal colony.' He paused. The clouds on the holograph were magnified again until a yellow-green planet could be seen, the image magnified again to highlight a small moon. 'Starfleet Intelligence believes that upwards of one hundred personnel are currently being held on this colony. Some are the survivors from the U.S.S. Hawaii.'

He named a vessel that had been lost in action two weeks previously while on a mapping survey. 'There were three hundred and fifty-eight officers and crew on the Hawaii.

We have reason to believe that Commodore Nilis and Captain Devereaux are among the prisoners.'

_How would they know that_, wondered Ohlson?

'We intercepted a message that spoke of the two men being held at this site prior to being transferred.'

_Question answered,_ Marcus shifted in his seat to make himself more comfortable.

It is your mission to raid this prison and free our people.' He paused again. 'The operation will be under the command of Captain Jackman, and she will fill in the details.' The admiral turned to take a seat as the thin figure of Captain Claudine Jackman walked to the front of the stage.

'The attack is scheduled for 1400 hours, and when the Osprey,' she named the Galaxy class starship they were sitting on now, 'arrives at its predestined coordinates you will move out in four specially designed shuttlecraft. The Shoeman, under Captain Lu; the Gaunt, under Captain Shay; the Cicero, under Commander Fessler; and the Augustus, under Commander Ohlson.' She had the attention of everyone in the room.

'The Shoeman and the Gaunt will attack the penal colony while the Cicero takes out the planetary communications and defense satellites, the Augustus will remain in reserve in case the Jem'Hadar arrive. We expect to encounter only two, or at the most three, patrol vessels guarding the establishment. It is a temporary base, up until three months ago it was abandoned, and we want it out of commission before it becomes a permanent feature.'

She paused before continuing. 'We are aware of the complaints that some of you have voiced over the new crews not being tested together, and of the use being made of experimental craft on so important a mission.

You have all taken part in the attack simulations and the crew training has been the best we can manage.

As for the ships, we have nothing else that we can spare, so make the most with what you've been given.'

Ohlson pulled a face; he had been one of the complainers. The simulations had been rushed and covered very few of the many possibilities that could occur. The supplies that had came with the new ship were incomplete and in some cases the wrong parts altogether.

Captain Jackman was still speaking. 'Captain Lu will lead the raid, each of you will be under his command once your vessels leave the Osprey.

We will be mounting a diversionary raid on a known trade route half a parsec from the colony, we hope that will occupy any patrolling enemy ships in the vicinity long enough to allow you to get in and get out with the minimum of risk.

The rendezvous will be with the Osprey at a prearranged time. I will give you over to Captain Lu now.

Good luck.' She sat down as the stout figure of Soo Han Lu stood up and strode purposively the short distance to the front of the dais. He tugged at his jacket as if it needed fixing. Then, he bowed in the direction of the admiral, she nodded in return, and then he spoke in his short clipped manner.

'The operation is of the utmost importance. We have planned this to cover all the possibilities that we can foresee. We still expect to suffer some casualties.

But, our people need us, they must believe that we will not forget them, and will do all in our power to get them home. It is time we removed the cancer from this sector of space.' He paused, then added. 'I know you can do this that is why you are here. Return to your vessels, dismissed.'

The assembled troops stood and walked from the briefing room on the Osprey's third deck and made their way to the turbolifts and then to the cargo decks.

Marcus felt unsatisfied with the briefing, like he had been rushed. He put it down to Lu's summary style of giving orders.

The turbolift doors opened.

Mc Sorley and Ohlson emerged into cargo bay three, where the Cicero and the Augustus stood side by side. 'I'd heard he was one for brevity.'

'Some say he is rude, and arrogant.' Ohlson was smiling. 'But, all say he's one of Starfleet's finest captains.' They neared the ship. 'Probably only a toenail away from being admiral.'

'Still, a few kind words wouldn't have gone astray.'

Ohlson tried to imagine Lu giving kind words. He failed. He had never met the man prior to being posted to the Augustus, and he did not believe that Lu thought highly of him or his crew either.

Ohlson turned his attention to the Augustus.

He eyed his vessel. It was slightly larger that the Danube class runabout from which it was based. But, the Roman class assault vessels were new and as yet untested in combat. Which might explain why the Augustus and the Cicero were backing the more known Explorer class Shoeman and Gaunt.

The Roman was a ten-man ship, and very heavily armed - carrying twenty torpedoes and four banks of phasers - and armoured for its size. A mini starship was what one designer had told Ohlson when he introduced the ship to its new commander. One of the new breed of Starfleet ships designed with combat in mind over exploration, small and deadly.

Mc Sorley was the first to enter the ship, Ohlson was right behind.

As the first officer and the captain, Mc Sorley and Ohlson had been the only representatives at the briefing. They entered the ship from the port side near the Bridge.

The Bridge of the Augustus had the obligatory viewscreen at one end, the usual captain's chair in the center, the helm and navigator positions in front of that, and three seats along each side for the other departments.

'Try the gauge again.' The speaker was a tall black woman wearing a red and black uniform; she was seated at the tactical post, to the left and behind the captain's chair. She was Lieutenant Benko Tambecki, young but tested. As an ensign she had seen service and earned a commendation on the U.S.S. Hurricane, at Wolf 359. She was the ship's helmsman.

'Yes, it's working now.' The voice came from behind a console panel. It was the Augustus' Science Officer, a Bolian, Petty Officer Colimo; he was replacing the panel when he saw the arrivals. 'I hope we have a little more time before we go, the timing of the fuel injectors is still not synchronized correctly.'

'Well, you have three hours to fix them, then we go.' commented Deborah Mc Sorley.

Mc Sorley was regarded by some as pushy. Some put that down to the colour of her hair. The redheaded Lieutenant Commander, originally of Starfleet Intelligence, and the U.S.S. Hood, now first officer of the Augustus, sat down and commenced a series of diagnostic checks.

Ohlson knew that she was more than capable of doing the work without his presence so he walked from the command section past the exit to the restroom - and, when required, briefing room of the vessel. Inside the room were: Ensign T'sella, the Vulcan Communications Officer, and part of the engineering team, small for a Vulcan at one meter sixty, but technically brilliant at her job; Yeoman 2nd class Gretchen Kausler, forty-one years old, Tactical Officer, a weapons expert with experience as an engineer. She was a short-haired brunette, renown for her silences, she only spoke when she thought it important, and that was seldom; and the newly promoted Lieutenant Alex Smith, medic, stout and balding, at thirty he was a late recruit to Starfleet. Ohlson knew he had ambitions to become a science officer on a starship and was a little discomforted among the small crew complement.

They were relaxing, and they deserved it as the ship's crew and conditioning had been foisted on them only in the last week. There had been a lot of work to get the Augustus up to par in the time allowed.

Of the trio, only Kausler had battle experience, she had survived the disaster of Wolf 359, even if her vessel the Saratoga had not. Ohlson had never heard her speak of those days.

'Where are the others?' asked Ohlson.

'Lieutenant Singh is out trying to scrounge up another phaser bank to replace the one that doesn't fit.' Kausler referred to one of the annoying problems that had came to light once they had examined the ship. One of the collection of bullet shaped phaser banks had been found to be for ground-based batteries and not for space vessels. Lieutenant Sia Singh, the oldest of the crew at forty-three, was the Chief Engineer and the one whose responsibility it was to correct that mistake.

'Ensign Barret and Lieutenant d'Amatsu are outside examining the hull.'

Ohlson nodded. The ship had bumped heavily when it had been delivered. A minor hull breech had been repaired, but they maintained a check, the ship had not been flown since the bad landing so they were impatient to fly it and see if the repairs held. Lu himself in front of half the population of the temporary docking bay had chewed out the engineer that had flown the ship and damaged it. Ohlson had disapproved but could say nothing.

He continued down the length of the ship and entered the area assigned as crew quarters. Beyond these were the lifts to the engine room and escape pods below. Marcus Ohlson entered his cabin, small compared to a starship's it was still roomy, he sat at the desk and tapped his console.

It jumped to life.

'Computer, put me through to the Osprey's Chief Engineer.'

In a few seconds the voice of Helen Tsokova was heard. 'Yes, Commander what can I do for you?'

'Hello Helen, I was wondering had you seen Sia about and has he got us a replacement for the phaser bank.'

She laughed. 'Yes, he's just left us, it seems the Cicero had the same problem. But all sorted now. Was there anything else?'

'Not unless you can get the synchronization of the fuel injectors fixed for us.'

'Don't worry, I was talking to Ben,' which was what Benko's friends called her, 'she appears to be on top of that glitch. If she doesn't fix it in ten minutes get back to me.'

'Will do, thanks Helen.' Ohlson had worked with the engineer since arriving on the Osprey and had found her to be friendly and skilled. He liked her.

'You can owe me a synthale.'

He wondered had she sounded concerned. The link was ended. Commander Ohlson stood and checked his cabin. Certain that all was in order he returned to the bridge.

Sia Singh was back and carrying a phaser bank. He walked past Ohlson with a nod and headed to Engineering to install the weapon.

'Captain, all systems are now checked and ready,' announced Mc Sorley.

Ohlson glanced towards Tambecki and Colimo; both were in their proper chairs. He guessed that the Osprey's Chief Engineer would not be getting another message from Ben. 'Very good, get everyone to the bridge for a briefing.'

Five minutes later the ten personnel attached to the Augustus were on the bridge and listening to their captain. ' So that's the mission, have you any questions?'

'How long do we expect to be away from the Osprey?' asked Mico d'Amatsu. Mico was a squat and sturdy assistant engineer. His ethnic roots gave him his mother's blue eyes and his father's oriental skin. He always appeared rushed and busy, and that was because he was always finding something to do. Sia had informed Ohlson that he'd discovered Mico stripping and reassembling the control console just to fend off boredom.

'In all it should take us two hours to reach the planet and then it's one hour to attack and three hours to get away.'

'That means we're quite close to it now.' The point was made by Colimo.

'Yes, but we'll be leaving the Osprey at wrap nine point two, so while we are in occupied space we are not near the penal colony's detection screen. '

'What was the Hawaii's mission?' Tambecki had been puzzled about something that was not clear to her captain.

'I don't know other than it was a routine patrol mapping the region.'

'In the Expanse?'

Ohlson shrugged. 'If it was on another mission then it hasn't been explained to us.'

'Why was Commodore Nilis on board?'

Ah, so that was what was puzzling her. Marcus gave another small shrug. 'I am not certain. It is unusual for a commodore to be so near the enemy front line without having a squadron of ships with him. But, he could have been on a fact finding mission, or even part of any overt operation that the Hawaii was part of, I just don't know.'

'How does Starfleet intelligence know so much about who and the number that are in this penal colony?' Barret was in puzzled mode too.

'Can't help you there either. Starfleet Intelligence sources are not open to every captain and commander, certainly not to me. Anything else?'

'Just what will we do at this Demon class planet?' asked Benko.

'Sit on the surface and listen for any calls for assistance,' answered Mc Sorley. She sounded like the mission was less than her idea of ideal.

Ohlson knew that being the reserve force was not her idea of being in action. He also knew that she had protested the brief to Captain Lu himself, but to no avail. Still, it did prove that the first officer had courage, it must have been years since a subordinate gave out to the mighty Captain Lu. Ohlson had heard of the exchange, Mc Sorley complaining vigorously and Lu curt and terse, from Helen one afternoon when they dined together.

He pushed aside the reminisces and held his hands up. 'Listen, I know this mission is not what most of you would wish it to be. But it is important, our people must know that we will not give up on them, and someone has to be the reserve. No one will thank us if the operation goes according to plan, but if it doesn't then it's us they will be depending on.' He paused, and then he decided to give the team speech now instead of later.

'You all come here from a multitude of posts, starship, Starbase, and HQ, but this is what the brass has assembled from all the personnel documentation, we fit the bill.

There is a lot of experience on board this ship, and the person alongside you, probably can do what you can't do, or understand.

I am sorry that we have no experience together on operations, but today we will get some.' he paused as Ensign Hope Barret raised her arm. 'What is it Ensign?'

'What happens to us after this mission?' she glanced at the others nervously, as a newly commissioned ensign just out of the academy, she couldn't help but feel that she was the must junior of all present.

He looked to Mc Sorley. 'The word is that we will be assigned new posts, and the vessels, the Cicero and Augustus, will be returned to Utopia Planetia for assessment. Shoeman and Gaunt are border patrol vessels so they will return to their normal duties.'

'Oh.'

Ohlson couldn't tell whether the news had pleased or saddened the girl. Being fresh from the academy she was no doubt seeking to see and serve with a regular crew for longer than one mission. _Aren't we all_, thought Ohlson? He wondered where he was destined to go, _probably waste control duty on New Berlin_, he thought. Then he dismissed the speculation. What he couldn't dismiss was the notion that command of the Augustus was not a promotion. He had been a science officer on Starbase Addison until the shortage of ranking manpower had made reassignment a certainty. This was his first combat command, and he wasn't sure how he was going to handle it.

There were no further questions.

'Then get to your posts,' ordered Mc Sorley, 'and prepare for departure.'

Ohlson took his seat, a raised chair just to the rear of the helm and navigation controls. Lieutenant-Commander Mc Sorley was at navigation, which was akin to the co-pilot's seat. Lt. Benko Tambecki sat at the helm.

To Ohlson's right sat the tactical station, Kausler's. Behind her sat Smith, he fidgeted. To the captain's left sat Colimo and Barret. d'Amatsu, Singh and T'sella were in Engineering. 'Is everyone in position?'

'Yes sir,' answered Mc Sorley.

They had timed it perfectly.

'Incoming message from the Shoeman,' said Colimo.

'On screen.'

The face of Captain Lu appeared, as was his style he got straight to business. 'The Osprey has reached her coordinates. We depart when ready. You will take up the rear after the Cicero.'

The screen went blank.

'Short and sweet,' said the first officer.

'Get ready to follow the Cicero,' ordered Ohlson.

Three minutes later the ship was ten kilometers off the Osprey's port bow. The bridge crew watched. The screen showed the large and graceful ship bank to starboard and then enter wrap.

'Not even a good luck?' Ensign Barret muttered.

'You don't waste subspace messages in the vicinity of Captain Lu, Ensign.' Marcus looked straight ahead at the Cicero.

She returned to her console uncertain whether or not she had been chastised.

'We've been instructed to follow the Cicero at wrap nine point two.'

'Then do so Commander,' suggested Ohlson.

On the viewscreen the three small shapes of the attack squad disappeared as each entered warp space. The Augustus zoomed after them.

The next message arrived minutes after they came within sensor range of the Demon class planet.

'Message from the Shoeman,' said Barret.

'On screen,' said Ohlson.

'Commander,' it was the face of Captain Lu, 'we will be commencing operations in one minute. Stay at the coordinates that you have been given until you hear from us.'

'Yes sir,' before he could wish him good luck, Lu was gone.

'Okay people let's go to where he wants us.'

One minute later and the three ships in front of the Augustus moved over the northern pole of the planet, and then they were out of sight. The crew knew that the penal colony was located directly above the equator, on the far side of the planet.

Mc Sorley tapped the navigation controls. Tambecki noted the readouts and touched her console, the ship moved to the coordinates that they had been supplied.

'We have been sent to the Southern Hemisphere.' Mc Sorley sounded puzzled.

'What's your concern Commander?'

She seemed reluctant to voice whatever it was that was troubling her, then she decided. 'It's just that close to a class 'Y' planet, and that far removed from the action, there is a possibility that we won't hear any communications that may be sent.'

'Certainly, our sensors will be next to useless too,' added Benko looking at Ohlson. 'There's a hell of a lot of ionic interference from the spot we've been sent to.'

He thought a moment. The planet was looming large in the viewscreen. Mister Colimo, do we have a probe that we can keep above the planet that could relay sensor data to us?'

The tall Bolian thought for a second. 'Yes, a class five, it could act as a relay, and booster.'

'Put one above our position as fast as you can.'

The Petty Officer tapped his console and before the Augustus had bumped to a landing on the planet's surface they had heard the small whoosh as the probe launched into a stationary orbit above them.

'It'll be set to operate in... Thirty-five seconds.'

They settled to wait.

Ohlson looked around the Bridge at his crew. All were intent on their jobs. Ensign Barret was scanning the communications channels, Tambecki was watching the sensor readouts, as they were in constant flux due to the turmoil of the wind and gases on the planet outside.

At the science station Smith checked the environment. The average wind speed was twenty kilometers per hour on the surface, but he detected gusts of up to seventy. A person might just be able to walk on the surface - might.

It was one hundred and thirty degrees Celsius below zero, and raining, the rain was an oily organic soup comprised of several acids. _Lovely_, he thought. He decided to run a geological scan.

Ohlson looked out of the viewscreen. It was just about zero visibility. _They called it correct whoever named these Demon class planets_, he thought.

'The probe is broadcasting,' announced Colimo.

'What does it see?' asked Ohlson.

The Bolian scanned his console. 'It's unclear, the others are probably still maintaining radio silence.' He grimaced.

The first officer caught the grimace. 'What is it?' asked Mc Sorley.

'There is something, interference. Perhaps shadows from ionic radiation.'

'From what, the colony?'

Colimo shook his head in response to the Captain's question. 'I'm not sure. There is what might be signal traffic, I just can't isolate it.'

'Is it a manufactured jamming signal, or the planet?'

'Eh, I...' he was changing the channels of the sensors seeking clarification.

'How could it be jamming?' asked Barret. 'This is a surprise attack.'

Ohlson was sitting forward in his chair. 'Can we contact the Shoeman?'

'Not a chance,' answered the Bolian, 'if it wasn't for the probe we'd have no chance of receiving any incoming messages. Whoever picked this spot didn't do a very good job, there'd have to be torpedoes exploding outside the door for us to realize that something was wrong.'

Mc Sorley looked at the Bolian. 'Wouldn't Lu have known that before he sent us here?'

Colimo shrugged. 'Perhaps they never got good enough sensor data from here, it is said to be off the beaten track.'

'I thought the Hawaii was mapping this place?' Barret momentarily lifted her head from the controls.

'Apparently that data was not returned to Starfleet,' murmured Ohlson.

Colimo worked at the controls again. 'The signal, it isn't coming from the penal colony. It's the oddest interference I've ever seen, it's like...'

'What?'

'I have an idea.' The Bolian hit the console controls again. 'I could send the probe a little further out from the planet, I may get a scan of the surface from there. I may even be able to get us a visual.'

'Do it and put it on screen.'

The screen showed the yellow and brown swirls of the planet's dense clouds, they couldn't even see themselves.

'It's coming from the planet, its moving and becoming more localized.' Colimo sounded puzzled.

'What kind of interference does that?' asked Barret.

The screen was now filled with the edge of the planet's Northern Hemisphere. The dull gray envelope of the atmosphere seemed to ripple over the pole region.

'That kind,' was Mc Sorley's reply.

The screen had been adjusted to show the polar area in detail. Behind the swirl of organic mist was the diffuse glow of the system's sun, a yellow dwarf, it illuminated the clouds between the probe and itself. Mc Sorley was increasing the magnification each time, until...

Center screen, the yellow dwarf glowing behind, was the distinctive silhouette of three, then four Jem'Hadar warships as they came over the horizon. They were flying inside the planet's atmosphere but high enough to show shadows against the swirls of yellow cloud.

'It's a patrol,' said Barret.

'That patrol is headed towards our position,' said Colimo.

'This is their space, why would they hide? Why would a patrol shelter there?' Ohlson voiced his thoughts aloud. 'It's no patrol,' he turned to Colimo. 'Can you get through to anyone?'

'No, there IS a jamming signal too, its subtle and disguised as planetary in origin, but effective. There must be a very large transmitter in the area.

The patrol has altered its course... it is heading directly towards us.'

'Can they see the probe?'

Colimo shrugged. 'If they were looking for it, yes, but if they weren't expecting anything, then their sensors being, I hope, something like ours, they'll see little to nothing of the probe or us. We can see them because we caught them between sun and probe.'

'Then if they are heading in our direction how do they know our position?' asked Smith.

'Damn good question.' Ohlson sat forward again. 'We'll worry about that later. Red alert, full power to shields and weapons, we've walked into a trap, and I want us out of it before the trap is sprung.

Lieutenant Singh, I hope you're following these events?'

He had been. In Engineering they had listened over the open communication link from the bridge.

'Yes, Captain, we've got full power to the engines, they'll do whatever it is that you ask of them.'

'Good,' answered Ohlson.

All around him the crew had swung into action. He could feel the tension increase as each crewmember realized they had just started the preparations for combat, and not as the reserves.

'Phasers ready, torpedoes ready,' said Kausler.

'Shields at maximum,' said Tambecki.. 'All systems in optimal condition.'

'Get us to the estimated position of the Cicero, half-impulse. If the Jem'Hadar have come for us then there's every reason to believe the others are in danger too.'

'Sir,' Mc Sorley sounded uncertain as whether or not she should speak.

'What is it?'

'What if you're wrong?'

Ohlson thought for a moment. 'The worse that happens is the word 'jumpy' is added to my service record.'

'If it's any consolation I'll let Lu put jumpy down on mine too, just after troublesome. ' She smiled and then turned back to her console.

'Done,' announced Tambecki as she moved the ship off the surface and along the terrain. 'I'm keeping us as shielded from the Jem'Hadar for as long as I can. This route should take us to within two hundred thousand kilometers of where the Cicero is supposed to be, and on the planet's surface for as long as possible, that should stop our movement being detected.'

'We'll lose the probe's data when we move out of range.' The Petty Officer was attempting to coax more information from the probe before he lost the link.

As he finished speaking, the screen showed lines, then blurring, then they could see only the acidic soup outside.

'Okay Lieutenant Tambecki, show us how well you can handle this ship.' Ohlson resisted the urge to bite his lip.

She didn't answer, she just concentrated on her console and controls.

The sensors were sending her the minimum of data but she guided the ship over the inhospitable terrain with surprising gentleness.

'Two minutes, or thereabouts, then we stop going straight, and go up instead.' She didn't take her eyes from the swirling clouds on the viewscreen.

_What can she see? _wondered Barret. _Does she see the terrain at all?_

They waited.

'We're almost there,' was the only warning she gave them, then the Augustus banked to the left and rose rapidly.

The crew felt the change in direction and then the inertial dampeners took over.

'Ready on weapons?' Ohlson's voice betrayed the tension they were all feeling.

'Ready,' responded Kausler.

The clouds thinned. They had circumnavigated the planet.

'The sensors are back on-line,' announced the Bolian. 'Three... no four craft ahead.

One Starfleet, three... Jem'Hadar.'

The viewscreen showed three of the vessels.

'Looks like 'jumpy' won't be added to the files after all,' remarked Mc Sorley.

The Cicero was in trouble, two Jem'Hadar ships were pounding the vessel with disruptors. The Augustus was coming away from the planet and behind the attackers.

'Any signs of life?'

'The Cicero's shields are at less than fifty percent, they have lost engines...'

'What of the Jem'Hadar?' interrupted Ohlson.

'No damage,' Colimo was tapping his console. 'No sign of the Shoeman or the Gaunt.'

'Attack pattern alpha three, get those Jem'Hadar away from the Cicero.'

Tambecki swung the ship towards the nearer of the two Dominion vessels. They were aware of the Augustus' arrival but at the range they found themselves at they had little room for maneuver. They lacked the agility of the Roman and could only turn sluggishly.

Mc Sorley watched the power readouts, all was well. She checked the hull integrity by habit and smiled to find out that the site of the breech was undetectable, she brought her mind back to ops control and navigation.

As the Augustus bore down on the lead attacker, Tambecki turned the ship on its side. The Jem'Hadar took up half the viewscreen.

'Fire phasers!'

Twin streaks of energy tore along the enemy ship's body, one beam ripped into one of its nacelle's as it tried to dodge the onslaught.

The Augustus banked hard so as not to lose sight of the second Jem'Hadar.

'Fire two torpedoes when you target the second one.'

Kausler did as she was instructed. The second ship had broken off attacking the Cicero and was rounding on its new enemy. The two torpedoes darted towards the insect-like vessel as it turned face on, the first torpedo exploded on its starboard side, the second connected with the bridge. The explosions shredded the ship.

'The first ship has lost forward shields and is damaged... I'm not sure how badly,' reported Barret.

The Augustus had turned back towards the first Jem'Hadar. It was slower, and what looked like plasma was leaking from the engines.

'Phaser fire only Yeoman,' ordered Ohlson.

Kausler fired three bursts at the wounded ship, all hit their target, the third ignited the plasma and disintegrated the vessel.

'Can you raise the Cicero?'

'I'm trying,' Ben was concentrating on the task.

'Try and find the Shoeman and Gaunt?'

'I'm reading that the Cicero is losing the integrity of their warp core,' said Colimo.

'I have them.' Barret was working feverishly to strengthen the signal from their sister ship.

'On screen.'

There was a blur and the close pattern of interference broke up the scene from the Cicero's bridge. Commander Gerhardt Fessler was seated, and speaking to the screen.

'We... the Shoem... satellites were ready... Lu wasn't...

understa...'

'Can you clear that audio?'

Ohlson's question was answered with the disappearance of the lines and the steadying of Fessler's picture.

'Can you hear me Commander?'

'Commander Ohlson, yes we can, but I don't know for how long.'

'Do you wish to commence evacuations?'

He shook his head, but glanced around the bridge. Several figures could be seen moving between stations. 'No, I haven't lost a vessel yet, and I don't intend to start now.'

'What happened?'

'Oh, er, I'm not certain, but the satellites we went to disable were not defense satellites, the intelligence was wrong, they were mines and exploded taking out most of our shields, the Jem'Hadar were waiting. They came from the planet. We have four dead and some of the ship's systems are off-line...'

Benko interrupted the commanders. 'Two Jem'Hadar vessels heading this way from the planet... they are powering their weapons.'

To his crew Ohlson said. 'Ready weapons,' to Fessler he said.

'What of the Shoeman and the Gaunt?'

Fessler looked shocked. 'Don't you know? I thought you were listening to us.'

'Our sensors were jammed...'

'They've fired.' Colimo's voice dragged Ohlson back to more immediate matters.

Kausler was already firing phasers in response.

'ON SCREEN!' yelled Ohlson as the Augustus rocked from the impacts.

'Shields are holding,' Colimo was holding on to his chair and trying to read the ever-moving gauges and indicators.

'The second has fired.'

On the viewscreen Ohlson saw the energy discharges leave the insectile ship and head towards them.

From the Augustus came three pulses, the first missed, then Ohlson lost his view as the bridge shuddered badly. When he looked back on the screen the Jem'Hadar was twisting out of control. Kausler's shot had ruptured the underside and the ship was sparking as ship-wide systems failed.

'Shields at sixty percent,' announced Colimo.

'Where's the other one?'

'It flew straight past us, it's attacking the Cicero,' Mc Sorley was already moving the viewscreen to show the fight.

It was one-sided, the Cicero was taking a vicious pounding.

'Get us within attacking range, and fire when you can.' He hoped the attack was not as bad as it appeared.

It was.

'Commander Fessler is sending a message,' said Barret.

'On screen, and hit that Jem'Hadar with everything when we reach it.'

The scene on the Cicero' Bridge had altered. Smoke filled one side and sparks were cascading from where an engineer should have sat.

Fessler was leaning against his chair, he looked to be in pain.

'Get out of here Ohlson, while you can. There's only two of us left...'

'We can start to evacuate at once...'

'No we can't,' interrupted the Bolian, 'that last attack took down our transporters.' He looked resigned and more deflated than ever Ohlson had seen him before. They had shared some service time as junior lieutenants, they were friends.

'Look's like its only you getting back Marcus,' Fessler was smiling sadly as he spoke. 'You must get back, and warn them.'

'Warn them?'

Fessler looked puzzled. 'My God that's right, you don't know.' He looked pale.

'Five more Jem'Hadar are approaching from the Demon class,' warned Ben.

'What is it?' Ohlson urged Fessler.

Fessler grimaced as a wave of pain swept his body.

'Fire in the path of those ships, give us time.' _I only hope we have some_, thought Ohlson.

Kausler obeyed, two torpedoes left the ship in the general direction of the incoming enemy.

'The Gaunt is destroyed,' said Fessler, 'three Jem'Hadar hit it as it rounded the horizon.'

'The Shoeman?'

Blast waves rocked the Augustus.

'Those torpedoes have damaged one,' reported Tambecki.

'They've fired... brace for impact...' Mc Sorley leaned to her console.

'The Shoeman,' answered Fessler, 'it...'

The blasts came in series, two large and two smaller, each knocked the Augustus.

'Shields at forty-two percent,' Colimo tapped his console searching for any reserve power he could send to the shields.

Fessler's face faded and the audio started to come in snatches.

'The mission... ' Fessler was still talking, 'can't believ... Lu must ... the trap... Hawa... entice us in...'

The screen faded even more.

'Can't you clear that picture?'

'Sorry sir,' answered Barret, 'it's not our end, the Cicero is breaking up.'

'...battleship...'

That was the last word that they heard from Fessler and the Cicero.

The screen showed the Jem'Hadar and the Cicero. The Starfleet vessel was moving, it was heading towards the planet and it was being strafed as it descended.

Kausler fired at the closest enemy to the Augustus and another Dominion ship exploded.

The swarm turned their attention to them as they seemed to decide that the Cicero posed no threat to them.

'Quantum torpedoes in a Delta one pattern on my mark.' Ohlson waited.

The ships came in a line, they seemed to be trying to swing around to the Augustus' port side.

'Fire!'

Three specks of energy screamed from the ship and raced into the Jem'Hadar.

'Fire phasers in an arc from one side to the other.'

She didn't question the order. The phasers hit the enemy ship to the port side of the Augustus and then swept on to the next and the next and then it played on the ship to the extreme starboard.

Then the torpedoes struck.

The blasts knocked one ship directly into the path of its neighbour. If the phaser fire hadn't distracted them they might have been able to avoid the collision.

The impact tore the port nacelle off one and it spun in a slow motion arc once before exploding. The ship it had hit spun away, it was falling lazily towards the planet.

One of the torpedoes had scored a direct hit, the third had missed.

'Its forward shields are down to thirty percent, the other...'

Ben's report was cut short as the undamaged vessel reached the Augustus and fired.

Kausler was returning the fire and the enemy's shields illuminated under the impact.

The Augustus shuddered again, the paneling behind Smith sprang away from the main body and a shower of sparks decorated the interior.

'We've lost aft shielding.'

'I'm rerouting power from auxiliary life support.' Mc Sorley rapidly completed the procedure.

Colimo watched his gauges. 'We have twenty-five percent aft shields.' _I hope it's enough_, thought the Bolian.

Kausler was still alert, she caught the aggressor as it tried to turn for another pass. The shields failed under the onslaught and then the phasers struck the hull. A flash of white was all that remained to show where a ship had been.

The last Jem'Hadar was out of sight.

'Where's the other one?' Ohlson was searching the viewscreen.

'It's returned to the Cicero.' Colimo had found it. 'The Cicero has entered the atmosphere... it's fired two torpedoes at the Jem'Hadar.'

'Get after them.'

Tambecki had banked the ship and was racing towards the two small dots on the viewscreen. They were traveling at full impulse, warp would be too fast this close to the planet. 'We won't make it.'

She was right. The flashes of the torpedoes exploding were followed by a smaller energy discharge.

'I've lost them,' said Colimo.

'The torpedoes... I think they got the Jem'Hadar...' Ben's voice betrayed the lack of certainty that she felt.

'What condition was the Cicero in when she entered the atmosphere?' He addressed the question to Benko.

She shrugged. 'Best guess, would be critical. We have no idea of what damage that last attack did to an already badly damaged ship.'

'Why did Commander Fessler head to the planet?'

The question came from Ensign Barret.

'Could be to disrupt their sensors?' suggested Smith.

'Or suicide?'

Mc Sorley looked at Kausler. 'Why suicide, why not an attempt to lure the Jem'Hadar ship into an area where it's sensors would be useless?'

'The state of the Cicero was at least worst than the state it was in before that last attack, and even then it would not survive for a minute on the surface of s class 'Y'.

No, the Cicero was never coming away from the planet once it headed towards it.'

'Enough speculation about the Cicero,' snapped Ohlson, 'what's our position, and give me a damage report.'

The instructions brought the crew back to their consoles as each read the sensors.

'No casualties. One hull breach that has a force field erected, nothing else we can do about that. We have half forward shields and twenty-five percent aft shields, and all weapons, although warp power and the transporter is off-line, for the next ten minutes, for the warp, and the next half an hour for the transporters, says Lieutenant Singh,' reported Mc Sorley.

'I can't find any Starfleet signals, and I think that squadron of Jem'Hadar that had been on the planet looking for us is moving into the atmosphere,' Colimo's eyes scanned his readouts for enlightenment.

'Do they know we're here?'

'No, they might be aware of some energy discharges above the planet from all the weapons, but I don't believe they could tell exactly what was happening. I can detect traces of them only because of their numbers. Large numbers close together are amplifying the energy signatures.'

Ohlson thought for a moment. 'Okay, we aren't going far until we get warp back.

When will the Jem'Hadar detect us?'

'One minute at worst, two minutes at best,' Mc Sorley was looking directly at him. She wondered if he had a plan, he looked and sounded like someone with a plan.

Ohlson nodded. 'The penal colony, where is it to our current position?'

'Just under the horizon, and three thousand kilometers away, but we have no sensor information, that reckoning is from the original intelligence reports for this mission.' Mc Sorley was watching the commander carefully.

'Let's go and find out what happened to the others, let's start with the Cicero, full impulse Commander Mc Sorley.'

'Aye aye sir,' answered the redhead.

The Augustus swung towards the horizon and away from the oncoming enemy.

Ohlson watched the crew settle again. They had performed well under fire, they still had to get more efficient, and they had yet to get the fluidity of teamwork, but that would come in time, he thought. _I hope we have that time_.

'We'll beat the Jem'Hadar to the surface, they shouldn't be able to detect us,' announced the Bolian. 'Any engine residue will be confused by the weapons residue.'

'What if there are more ahead?' said Barret.

Ohlson ignored the question. 'As we near the horizon drop us to the planet's surface, get a scan of what's ahead before we lose our sensors.

Get as near to the estimated position of the Cicero as you can.'

'Do we hide on the Demon?' asked Benko.

'Yes, until we get warp back at least.'

'It'll be a tight maneuver,' Mc Sorley added. 'But, if we release another probe, a class three is all but undetectable at the best of times, ahead of us and have it transmit for half a minute or thereabouts before it drops to the planet, we might get more information. It should, if observed, for its size and composition, be mistaken for debris.'

'Debris,' Barret sounded doubtful, 'do we want them to see anything of us?'

'They might not know it's us, but they will certainly know they have lost a few ships and the Cicero once they clear the Demon's atmosphere.' Mc Sorley added in a quieter voice, 'from what Commander Fessler said they knew we were coming, so they will want to see something of the Augustus or they may look closer than we would wish.'

'Prepare two class three probes Colimo, keep them a kilometer apart as they clear the horizon.'

The Bolian had already relayed the order to Engineering.

'We've fifteen seconds,' warned Colimo.

'Bridge!'

'What is it Sia?' asked Ohlson.

'One class three probe is all we have here, it's ready for launch.'

_One_, thought the Commander, he made a mental note to question that point later. 'Fire the probe and get us down. Use long-range sensors and get as much as you can.'

The Augustus' viewscreen showed the small probe move ahead of the main vessel, then the screen showed the trails of gases and atmospheric pollutants of the Demon class, then the stars were no longer visible through the whirling mists of the clouds.

'We've lost sensors,' reported Barret. Moments later, she added. 'The probe is entering the atmosphere. It has ceased transmitting.'

'One hundred kilometers to the surface,' read Mc Sorley from her console.

'Ninety one...

eighty five...'

'Half reverse thrusters,' ordered Ohlson.

'I've stabilized the descent, but we're still going in blind,' she thought about what she had said for a moment, 'or short-sighted at best. She glanced at Ben, the pilot, she was concentrating on her console.

'Fifty kilometers.

Forty...

Thirty-two...

Twenty-four...

Twenty...

Eighteen...

Fifteen, thrusters on maximum, we're approaching a level landing site,' she hoped the surface was solid, although it would be all but impossible to find a liquid surface at the temperatures she was reading from her console.

'Five...' There was a bump. 'We're down,' she scanned her post, 'no new damage.

'Well done Lieutenant, I am impressed.'

'Me too,' replied Benko with a grin.

'Can we last here indefinitely?'

'Yes, Captain,' answered Smith, 'atmospheric gases and liquids will eventually corrode the hull, but we're talking days of exposure for it to happen. The surface is solid methane, and the gases are a variety of mostly organic chemicals, there are no life signs detectable, and I'd doubt even the Jem'Hadar have a barracks nearby.'

'Cut engines.'

The engine sounds ceased.

After a few seconds Ohlson spoke. 'What did we collect from the sensors? What's out there, where our ships are supposed to be?'

'I'm reading it now.' Colimo paused as he digested what the probe and the Augustus' sensors had discovered. 'There is an establishment of some kind out there, where the penal colony was supposed to be. But it isn't the way it was explained to us.

I can detect no satellite defense system.'

'No satellites?' asked Mc Sorley.

'None, but then it wouldn't need any. Commander Fessler described mines not satellites.

There are twelve Jem'Hadar vessels in close formation near the prison, and one of them is massive.'

'Fessler did mention a battleship,' Mc Sorley reminded them.

'And,' added Colimo, 'that may be the source of the jamming signal.'

'I've heard they had ships twice the size of a Galaxy class starship.' Ben looked embarrassed for having spoken, she returned her attention to her console.

'Go on,' said Ohlson. 'What else was there?'

'There was one other signature.'

He looked directly at the commander. 'The Shoeman is docked alongside the prison.'

'Docked?' Mc Sorley sounded like that scenario made no sense to her.

Ohlson had a bad feeling about what the rest of Colimo's report would say.

'I can find no trace of weapons' fire or damage, whatever happened the Shoeman fell with the minimum of struggle.'

'Anything else?'

'Yes, I can detect life signs on all but the Jem'Hadar battleship. It has its shields up.

Their smaller ships are all fully manned, and the prison contains around two hundred and fifty persons, most are human, but there are other life signs detectable, Vulcan, Bolian, Betazed, and Dominion troops with Vorta. It is consistent with guards and about half the complement of the Hawaii.'

'Can you tell how many of each?' Smith addressed the Bolian directly.

'No, not from the prison, not with what we collected, they are all in too small an area to make differentiation of the life signs possible. It's easier in an enclosed space away from the prison's energy sources, like a ship, to tell who or what is on board.

Oh,' he looked back at the captain. 'The other data that was gathered tells us something else about the Shoeman.

The probe detected nine life signs, two Vorta, five Jem'Hadar, and two humans.'

There was a moment's silence before Ohlson spoke.

'I can understand the Dominion presence, but why would two humans still be on the ship?'' He looked up at the Bolian. 'Can you identify any of the life signs that you did detect?'

'No, the determination of races is not even a certainty, its all about probabilities on the information that is collected. But, they have no shields up, all except the big ship. It seems to have been on high alert.

Even the prison wasn't shielded.

It looks like they are expecting no one that isn't a new prisoner.'

'How many ships were on the planet?'

Colimo was shaking his head. 'We have no way of determining that, the sensors showed large numbers, and they were grouped together, but other than saying that the number was upwards of thirty...' he shrugged.

'Thirty?' Alex Smith looked surprised.

Colimo nodded. 'We detected three groups, the energy profile, for us to even see a trace through the interference would require at least ten ships per group.

That makes an awful lot of ships to find around what is nothing more than a minor prison facility.'

The bridge crew sat silent as they pondered the news.

'That's a whole lota ships even to counter our attack,' agreed Benko, 'so what do we do now?'

Marcus addressed Smith. 'Can the hull of a Jem'Hadar ship withstand this atmosphere any better than ours?'

The science officer thought a moment. 'I couldn't be certain, but the reports on the composites that comprise their hulls would suggest they probably could remain exposed to this without sustaining any, or little, damage.'

Ohlson stood up. 'Lieutenant Smith, you have the bridge, Commander Mc Sorley, Chief Colimo, Yeoman Kausler and Lieutenant Tambecki join me in the briefing room.' He turned to Ensign Barret. 'Inform Lieutenant Singh, and Ensign T'sella to meet us there.'

He strode from the bridge, behind him those named followed. Ensign Barret informed Engineering of his instructions, and Smith took his position in the captain's chair.

When they had left, Smith turned to Barret. 'Okay Ensign, there's little use for your skills back there come up and take the helm.'

Barret licked her lips, but rose and walked to the station.

'Keep an eye on the sensors Ensign, let's not be surprised by any roving Jem'Hadar.'

Smith tapped the console alongside the captain's chair, he rerouted the data he had collected from the earlier geological scan. He studied it. The surface composition of this planet was very interesting indeed, he studied it some more.

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter, thanks for reading it. Please review**


	2. Chapter 2

They assembled in the briefing room, the delegation from Engineering was the last to arrive.

Marcus Ohlson got straight to business. He had no reason to explain anything to Singh or T'sella, the combadges had been open throughout the engagement so they had followed everything.

'Give me a report on our status?'

Mc Sorley started. 'No major damage, the hull breach is covered by an emergency force field and we can close that section altogether and use the parallel corridor just in case we need to conserve energy. Our shields are low but holding, we can reroute some power from superfluous systems and increase them, but it'll take a bit of time, and weapons are fully operational.'

Singh went next. 'Transporters are off-line still, we're having some difficulty as we have had to replicate a replacement part.'

'Why?' asked Ohlson.

'There have been several oversights in the supplies allocated to the Augustus. The probes, we had one each of classes one to six, and while there is room for two or three of some of them, the spaces have been left empty.

I am hoping, these are oversights due to the newness of the ship. But other than that we have one burnt out coil attachment to make to finish repairs to the confinement beams. One of the attacks caused a power surge that fried the coil.' He shrugged. 'That isn't unusual, but most ships have spares ready and waiting, we don't.'

'For anything?' asked Benko.

'For anything,' agreed the engineer.

'So when will it be ready?' asked Ohlson.

'It'll be ready and fitted in thirty minutes, but under the circumstances I'd like an hour on top of that to run some diagnostics on it while it is in place.'

'I'll try and give you the time,' Ohlson turned to the Vulcan communications officer. 'T'sella, can we contact anyone from this planet or its vicinity?'

'Yes, if we leave the inner atmosphere. But,' she continued, 'any message would be instantly picked up by every Jem'Hadar warship in the locality.

By the time the Osprey heard us we would be in combat. And we are no match for the battleship, let alone the other patrol vessels, so combat would not last long.'

Ohlson sat back in his chair. 'Okay, then I'd like to hear what you all thought of Commander Fessler's messages.'

Sia Singh spoke first. 'I take it we all agree that this was a trap.'

Several nods gave him his reply.

The engineer continued. 'Then, we have to assume that someone on the Shoeman, as the Gaunt was destroyed, and the Cicero probably destroyed, was a spy.'

'Why not the Augustus?'

Benko Tambecki was sitting forward, her fingers entwined on the desktop.

Sia thought for a moment. 'Actually, there's no reason that the traitor can't be aboard here, or even a second traitor.'

'That's ridiculous ,' interrupted Kausler, 'if we'd been the ship with the traitor, if there was a traitor, something I'm not convinced about yet. The leak that told of our arrival might be from some as yet unknown sensor relay or a leak from a neighbouring Starbase, I don't know. But as for a traitor being placed on the Augustus, having them on the tail ship makes no sense.

We missed the action, we then avoided capture, and more importantly we have inflicted a lot of damage on our own ships if we're supposed to be pro-Dominion.' She returned to her usual state, as the others digested her theory.

'I agree with Gretchen,' said Mc Sorley, 'if you wanted to entrap an assault force then you'd want your person, or people, to be at the front and not at the back.'

'Does that mean we're free from Dominion infiltrators?' asked Benko.

Ohlson replied to her query. 'We have to assume that, not only for the reasons given by Gretchen or Deborah, but for the reason that if we turn against ourselves then we'll never trust ourselves or our colleagues enough to survive any further engagements.'

'Are we having a further 'engagement'?' asked Colimo.

Ohlson was nodding. 'Yes, we're going to do what we can to free our people on the prison and see about taking out that Jem'Hadar battleship.'

'Hmm,' said Mc Sorley to anyone who was listening, 'what's that Chinese saying about 'May you live in interesting times'?'

'Actually,' pointed out Ohlson, 'that's a Chinese curse.'

'How appropriate,' Singh was looking at the floor. 'Do we take it that you have a plan?'

Ohlson smiled.

'I want a complete inventory of the weapons and probes, I also want an estimation of which of the enemies out there we can inflict damage on, and what we can do to get everyone off that prison.'

'Well,' shrugged Sia, 'I can tell you one problem we have.'

'What's that?'

'Numbers, even if we beam everyone out, we haven't got the space to put them anywhere.'

'He's right,' agreed Mc Sorley, 'we'll need the Shoeman, and something else.'

Kausler looked at her. 'How do you imagine we can do that?'

Deborah Mc Sorley shrugged. 'I didn't say I had all the answers, just some of them.'

'What about the Cicero?'

Ohlson looked at Benko.

'We know it's badly damaged, we believe it is destroyed... but we don't know that for sure.'

'It'd be handy if it was in almost any condition,' added Sia. In response to the looks of the others he continued. 'In all likelihood it is destroyed, but unless it exploded, and we didn't record any explosions other that the torpedoes, then we might be able to salvage some materials and supplies from her. We could fix that hull breech, add some torpedoes, and even get a few extra phaser banks..'

'There's something else we could obtain from a crashed Cicero,' said Colimo, 'and that's the entries the officers' made while attacking the prison ship, we could recover the scans they made and the details of what they think happened to the Shoeman and the Gaunt. That'd assist any planning that was being done.'

'True,' pondered Mc Sorley, 'and wouldn't it be nice to know who the enemy really is?'

'That's our first mission then, find the Cicero,' Ohlson steepled his fingers, 'by my reckoning, we have four hours, perhaps five, and then we'll either be discovered, or the prison and its inmates will be removed.'

'What makes you say that?' asked Ensign T'sella.

He had their full attention. 'You've already pointed out the overly large number of ships here. It sounds like half of the Hawaii's crew is being held here, and it makes no sense that the only inmates of a prison all come from the one ship.

Unless they are the bait,' he paused, 'and I don't believe the Dominion would go to that trouble just to entrap four assault ships.

Those Dominion ships are hiding for some reason other than us, and we are in the middle.' He leaned back.

'In the middle of what?' asked Ben.

Ohlson shrugged. 'Perhaps an invasion route that Starfleet don't know about.'

'Then why lure us in and risk discovery?' asked Sia.

'Well, they got the Shoeman. Perhaps they want one or all of our ships as part of that invasion,' suggested Mc Sorley, 'with them manned by a spy they could get as far as Starbase 283 before anyone got wise to them. And if behind these ships came a Dominion Fleet...' she left the rest unsaid. Starbase 283 was situated in a very strategic position, Vulcan itself would be within striking distance of the Dominion if they captured the starbase, and several major military bases would become vulnerable to attack. It would be a major blow to the Federation if Starbase 283 fell.

'Captain,' said the Vulcan, 'there is a certain logic to what you suggest, but even if they captured all four ships and attacked the starbase, the base is well protected by the ships of the Fourth Fleet that are stationed there, they would not be certain of taking the base.'

'That's true,' agreed Ohlson, 'I'm not saying I fully understand what is going on here, because I don't, but I'd like us to get started and find out.

While we get our warp engines on-line and then get out of here, hopefully without being chased by a Dominion Armada.'

The others pondered the points he had raised.

'Let's upset their plans, let's get busy. Commander Mc Sorley, find me the Cicero.'

'Yes sir.'

The meeting broke up. Sia Singh waited behind as the rest filed back to the Bridge and Engineering.

'What is it Sia?'

The Indian waited until Lieutenant Tambecki had left. 'It's this trip to the Cicero. I take it you realize that the transporters will be ineffectual for retrieving anything.'

Ohlson nodded.

'Then you intend sending a party out on foot.'

Another nod.

'Well then I have to tell you that we only have two environment suits on board, and in this atmosphere they'll probably only remain usable for an hour or thereabouts.'

Ohlson digested the news. 'Two suits, that doesn't give us a lot of room to maneuver does it?'

Sia agreed. 'Do you know anyone on board who's used suits on a Demon before?'

'No, do you?'

He nodded. 'Me.'

Marcus paused. 'Who could go with you, it's a general salvage operation, I want whatever can be carried back?'

'Then it has to be another engineer, you'll need someone who knows where to search and with the ability to recover computer data, weapons as well as anything else we may find.'

'Who do you suggest?'

'Mc Sorley will want to go, but Mico d'Amatsu is the one I'd like there with me.'

Ohlson thought about Mico, the junior lieutenant was a bit of a joker, but competent and well qualified. He was also untried. 'You may have to spend time baby-sitting him.'

'Don't let his jokey attitude fool you, I watched him earlier while we were under fire. He worked well, even managed to keep power to the phasers when one of the conduits ruptured, without being told he rerouted auxiliary power to another circuit. I think he'd be fine.'

'Okay Sia, you go and brief him. When we find the Cicero I'll ask you over the combadge, if he can't do it you probably will have Deborah with you.' He was hoping he wouldn't be sending his first officer, she was enthusiastic but untrained and would in all likelihood miss things an engineer wouldn't.

Sia left the briefing room and headed back to Engineering.

Ohlson walked to the Bridge. All the others were at their stations and concentrating, except Smith, he approached Marcus as he entered the room.

'Captain.'

'Yes Lieutenant?'

'Hmm. this might be nothing, but I ran a geological scan of the planet while you were gone.' He paused.

'Go on Alex, I take it that means you found something?'

'It's this planet's mantle sir, it's very unstable.'

'How unstable?'

Another pause. 'I found numerous faults. There are active volcanoes all over the surface, and the scan showed crust deformation, real thin surface layers. Parts of this planet could explode at any time.'

Ohlson thought a moment. 'How come it's so unstable?'

'I thought about that too Captain, and while I'm not certain, I do believe that the normal instabilities were exacerbated by external actions.'

'What does that mean?'

'I think this planet's been used to test some very powerful weaponry. Perhaps a missile test range. We'd never detect most weapons' residue, not in this atmosphere, but something unnatural has weakened the core and caused some planet-wide geological activity that has yet to stabilize. The core is more active than it should be, and the surface a lot weaker.

I'm not suggesting they have a Doomsday device or anything we haven't encountered before, I think the odds are that recent excessive training and a naturally weak mantle have contributed to what I found.

That said, if they tested some while we were here a whole lot of faults could crack open under the stress.'

'I see. Thank you Lieutenant, keep an eye on the activity, and let me know if you find out anything else about what occurred here and if you detect further weakening of the planet's surface.'

Lieutenant Smith resumed his station. Ohlson sat down in the Captain's chair. _Great_, he thought, _we're hiding on a planet that could explode around us at any second._

'Any sensor data concerning the whereabouts of the Cicero?'

'I think I have its last estimated position,' said Barret.

'Don't think Ensign, just find the ship.'

'Well, that's it Captain, we can't be certain if it fell in one piece or that something else didn't cause a course deflection. But I do have an estimate.'

'Where is it?'

'One nine three mark six, approximately one thousand three hundred kilometers, sir.'

'Lieutenant Tambecki take us there.'

'Aye aye Captain.'

She banked the ship and they moved deeper into the murky soup-like surface layer of the planet.

'Keep an eye on the atmospheric readings Ensign, let me know what if any changes you detect.

Yeoman,' he addressed Kausler, 'be ready with phasers in case we bump into any unwelcome patrols.

Kausler had her fingers poised over the fire buttons. The targeting in this environment would have to be manual. Difficult thing to do, use phasers this close to a planet's surface and in this visibility. She licked her lips and smiled.

'How much further?'

'Nine hundred and thirty kilometers,' answered Barret.

'Bridge to Engineering.'

'Yes Captain,' answered Sia Singh.

'How's the transporters coming along?'

'They are almost ready, they should be operational by the time we reach the Cicero. One thing thought.'

'What's that?'

'If they go again in all probability we won't be able to repair them.'

'Understood.' Ohlson nodded and turned his attention back to the apparently never changing viewscreen.

The whirls and eddies were mesmerizing. It was hard to imagine that a human couldn't last a second out there without a full environment suit. _Beautiful and deadly_.

The vessel rocked, and a large rock-face passed the port side of the Augustus with a few meters to spare.

Tambecki didn't comment on the maneuver, Ohlson chose to ignore it too.

'How far?'

'Four hundred and seventy kilometers sir.'

'Anything on the long-range sensors?'

'Nothing at all in this disturbance,' responded Barret. 'We might have to be as close as a kilometer before we can do an analysis with any accuracy.'

_Great,_ he thought_, we have to be sitting on top of it before we know what it is._ He thought too that if they didn't find the Cicero here the range of their sensors might mean they would have no chance of finding it before the atmosphere corroded their hull.

'One hundred and ten kilometers.'

'I'll have to increase the altitude to intensify what we can get from the lateral sensors.' Mc Sorley was concentrating on her console. Ohlson could see nothing on screen, then a rocky slope slid under them.

'Do it then.'

Lieutenant Tambecki raised the nose of the ship.

They straightened.

'Anything?'

'Nothing yet.'

The seconds passed, then a minute.

'I've slowed it as much as I can Captain,' said Benko, 'it cuts down on the area we can search.'

'We are less than twenty meters from the estimated position of the Cicero's crash site.' Barret kept her eyes glued to her console. 'We're right on top of it.'

'Anything on sensors?'

'Nothing yet.'

'Bring us down a bit.'

Tambecki responded and the ship dipped.

'Circle the area Lieutenant, let's see if can pick up a trail of debris.'

Another minute passed, then another.

'Captain!' Barret's voice betrayed her nervousness. 'I've got something, it's ten meters off our starboard hull, and... it's big.'

'Is it the Cicero?'

'I-er can't tell.'

'Lieutenant drop us to within a meter.'

Tambecki turned the craft and gently nudged it down to the planet's surface.

The swirls and clouds remained on screen throughout the operation. There was a nudge as the ship settled on the surface.

'What can you tell me Lieutenant Smith?'

There was a pause. 'Seems to be as solid as it gets on this planet. I can't see any nearby fissures to suggest localized volcanic activity. The temperature is one hundred and ten below, I think this is what passes as the temperate belt, and the winds are... thirty to forty kilometers per hour, but they'd have to be careful of gusts.

It's what passes for daytime on this planet, although visibility will be measured in less than a meter.'

'Anything more from the sensors?'

'No sir.'

'Very well then, Lieutenant Singh prepare your away team.'

'Lieutenant d'Amatsu and I will be suited up in minutes.'

Ohlson nodded, Singh must have talked to d'Amatsu and was okay with whatever had passed between them. 'Take phaser rifles with you, just in case.'

Mc Sorley was looking at the Captain.

'What is it Commander?'

'I was wondering whether the away team might require a third member.'

'I would like it to be four in number,' said Ohlson, 'but we only have two environmental suits, so I selected two engineers. they would be quicker at dismantling anything that might help us...' he shrugged, 'that's if there's anything out there to salvage.' He addressed that question to Ensign Barret.

'It's a very large signal sir, and is consistent with the mass of a Roman class vessel.'

'Could it be a Jem'Hadar ship?' Colimo was watching the ensign's face.

She looked surprised, turned and scanned her console again. 'I-er have no way of saying, all I do know is that a large mass of manufactured material, metals and polymers are a few meters away from us, I have no idea of who manufactured it.'

'Well, that's something Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu can find out,' Ohlson hoped he was right. He was wondering if the reading could be a parked Jem'Hadar vessel. 'Be careful Sia that it isn't a fully functional Dominion ship resting out there.'

'I will,' answered the Indian, 'the away team is ready to disembark.'

'Good hunting gentlemen.'

The Roman class ship was fitted with two airlocks, one was beside the Bridge the other was off the engine room.

In Engineering, Lieutenant d'Amatsu opened the airlock containing himself and Lieutenant Singh, both were dressed in full silver coloured environment suits; their faces were illuminated by the dim lights of the helmets.

'Ready?'

'Ready,' answered Singh.

Both men stepped on to the surface of the Demon class.

Singh looked around at what greeted them.

Visibility was at best a meter, and that was when the winds didn't blow a wisp of coloured mist in your direction. A light shower of rain was falling and causing further visual confusion to the two men.

He felt d'Amatsu bump against him.

'Augustus, this is Singh, can you hear us?'

'Affirmative, what is your status?'

Sia turned to d'Amatsu. The man was all but leaning against him. It was the only sure way of keeping visible. Mico raised a thumb.

'We're fine, the suits appear to be holding well.'

'The target is to your right, and starts a few meters from your position.'

Sia nodded at d'Amatsu. 'We're en route.'

He turned to the direction Ohlson had indicated and started to move slowly away from the Augustus. His speed had little to do with his haste to get the away mission completed, he found the suit mildly constricting, and the winds were striking them laterally. If he rushed his advance he would find himself tossed to the ground, and probably some meters away too.

He rocked as a gust of yellow wind tried to unbalance him.

d'Amatsu's arm came into view beside his own.

He debated whether or not to take the phaser rifle off his shoulder, he decided that there was little point, at this range he'd be able to punch any enemy as quick, if not quicker, than he could aim a rifle.

He slowed and scanned about him. Whatever the Augustus' sensors were picking up should have been here. He felt rock beneath his feet, and saw nothing but the swirls and the drizzle.

He inched forward. 'Okay Augustus, where is it?'

There was a momentary pause then he heard Mc Sorley's voice. 'It should be within a meter of you.'

_A meter._ He reached forward and lowered himself.

d'Amatsu walked a step past him.

'I've found it.'

Sia had found it too. His right hand was touching the smooth surface of a manufactured artifact. 'Me too.' It was somewhat disconcerting not to be able to see the ends of your own arms.

He moved his face to his hand. The swirls thinned and then he saw it. The metal was gray and worn, worn like it had been torched. He ran his hand upwards. The shape moved away from him.

He stood and took a step nearer. His hand moved away from him and then it found another surface.

d'Amatsu was feeling the surface of the object too.

'It's the right colour for a Starfleet ship. But I can't find any identification.

I'm moving around it, it's big, I'll try to find the entrance.'

'Is the Cicero intact Mister Singh?' asked Colimo.

d'Amatsu was rounding the side of the ship. It was very long, or at least seemed that way when you could only see a half a meter length at a time.

'It isn't the Cicero.'

'Say again.'

Sia Singh was standing on the ship's surface he had first came in contact with. It had proven to be the side nacelle, the port one.

He was looking at the side entrance, and reading the registry that was marked there. 'I said it isn't the Cicero.'

There was a pause then Ohlson's voice. 'Do you know what ship it is?'

'Yes, it's the Gaunt. And I think it's intact., or at least this section.'

d'Amatsu had been following Singh's announcement. He had also reached an edge. He leaned closer.

'Yes, it's an Explorer, this is the aft section. I'm at the end of it. There's been a lot of damage done by disrupters.'

'Could it have survived reentry to that planet?' Ohlson didn't sound like he believed that to be possible.

Sia had found a keypad. 'It's possible, depends on when and where the ship was cut.

If the vessel managed a controlled descent and only broke up close... say twenty or thirty meters, from the surface then yes, this section could have hit the surface and not disintegrated.' He tapped in a code. 'But that doesn't mean that the interior is not compromised by this environment.'

There was a hiss as the emergency exit to an evacuation pod opened.

'I've opened the outside of an escape pod, I'm going in. d'Amatsu, can you find me?'

'I'm circling the ship, I'll be there as soon as I can.' He walked carefully around the ship's visible hull, but he stopped frequently as eddies of dust and puffs of wind moved and jostled him from his position.

A gust struck him as he leaned forward feeling for the gray-silver surface, it knocked him face down.

For a moment he could see only the gray dust and gravel that he had been standing on, then he closed his eyes and pushed himself upright.

He stared about him, he recognized nothing. He strained to see anything that might be familiar. He leant over and glanced at the ground, trying to see the pattern of dust where he had fallen, it might give a clue to his whereabouts prior to the gust catching him. All he could see was the swirls and mini dust clouds that the winds brought up. There was nothing in the dust now to even say that he had lain there.

He turned to see what was about him. He fought back the panic that was rising. _I can't be more than a meter from where I had been, the ship could be within touching distance... but in which direction._

He gave up. 'd'Amatsu to Singh.'

'What is it?' answered the Indian.

'I'm lost.

I was hit by a gust, I have no idea of what direction the ship is in.'

On board the Augustus, Mc Sorley turned to Ohlson. 'We can tell him where he is in regards to us, and Lieutenant Singh, but we can give him little help in getting back to the Gaunt, if it is the Gaunt.'

'Do it then.'

She scanned her console. 'Ensign Barret, can you get both men's life signs on your readouts?'

'Yes sir, but I don't know which is which?'

'That shouldn't be much of a problem. Lieutenant d'Amatsu.'

'Yes Commander.'

'I want you to take one step to your right while Lieutenant Singh you remain motionless.'

d'Amatsu did as he was asked, he stepped sideways then he stopped. 'Okay, where am I?'

Mc Sorley looked at Barret.

'Got him, he's south east of the last readings we had of the ship, and four point three meters away from Lieutenant Singh, in a north westerly direction.'

'Right, did you hear that Lieutenant d'Amatsu?'

'Yeah, but what does it mean?'

'If he turns to his left, ninety degrees, and then walks forward he'll hit the ship. Then he can follow it until he reaches Lieutenant Singh.' Barret stopped.

'Okay,' responded d'Amatsu, 'I'm turning and walking, keep an eye on my whereabouts, visibility is next to zero and the dust clouds are obscuring any possible landmarks.'

Ohlson smiled at Mc Sorley, they had both been listening to hear what Barret would do, if she'd waited to be told what to do, or would she assert herself and use her intuitive. Barret's performance was very good, very good for a first mission ensign straight from the academy.

'I have the ship,' d'Amatsu's pleasure, and relief at getting his bearings was obvious to all who heard him.

'Then hurry up and get round here,' interrupted Singh, 'we can get into the ship from here and see if the hull's integrity has held and if we have any extra supplies we can use.'

'I'm on it Lieutenant, I'll be there in minutes.'

They waited until two minutes had passed. 'I see him.' It was Singh's voice.

Ohlson exhaled. 'Okay enter the craft, and be careful.'

d'Amatsu stood beside Singh as the Indian closed the outer door of the escape pod.

'Can you still hear me?' asked Singh of the Augustus.

'Loud and clear Sia,' answered Ohlson.

'We are inside the pod and initiating the enter sequence.' Singh stood beside d'Amatsu, he was pushing buttons inside the sealed escape pod.

Nothing happened.

He repeated the procedure.

Still nothing.

He sighed and looked about him. He found what he had been looking for in the shape of two magnetic grips. He took them from their storage position near the floor and placed one on each side of the door.

He pressed the activation button and heard the reassuring click as the clamps fixed themselves to the doorplates.

He gripped both and pulled them apart.

It was strenuous work but the door opened.

He released his hold on the clamps and walked into the corridor of the vessel, automatically he took hold of his phaser rifle and turned his wrist light on.

d'Amatsu followed. When Singh turned to his companion he noted that he had his phaser rifle ready too.

The corridor was dark, the only lights were those that the away team.

d'Amatsu swept the corridor. 'No life signs. It seems to be undamaged in this section, but there's no sigh of the crew.'

On the Augustus all listened to hear what the others had discovered.

Ohlson responded. 'We're picking you up loud and clear, exercise extreme caution while on that ship.'

'Will do,' said Singh, 'he started to walk down the corridor. 'I think I'm heading in the direction of the bridge.'

He heard the footsteps and saw the thin beams of light that emanated from d'Amatsu, he was right behind the Indian.

The light picked out the closed bulkhead.

'It is the bridge, I recognize the codes outside the door.' Singh took his tricorder from his waist. He tapped it and pointed it at the door. There was a momentary delay then a hiss as the away team gained access to the bridge of the U.S.S. Gaunt.

It was a mess, whatever had attacked them had done so swiftly and with precision. There were seven bodies present, Captain Shay, a man that Singh had spoken to twice while the ships had been on the Osprey, was still in the captain's chair.

'My guess is they were hit by something that caused a hull breech here on the bridge, death seems to have been instant,' Singh was looking at the helm and navigation stations. They were still manned and all were dead.

d'Amatsu was at Tactical. He punched some buttons. 'I'm rerouting auxiliary power to give us some systems.'

The lights came on.

'I have the computer back on-line.

I'm calling up all the logs of the last few hours.' He had a tricorder positioned by the console. he would download the data and study it at a later date back on board the Augustus.

'While he's doing that I'll have a look in Engineering,' Sia Singh walked out of the bridge and into one of the twin corridors that led to the rear of the craft. He was trying to remember the layout of an Explorer class ship, and to remember had it, or the piece they had found, been long enough to contain the Engineering section.

It was, he turned a bend and the doors to Engineering stood half-opened in front of him.

He pushed at it, and finally jammed his shoulders into the gap and levered the doors apart.

He entered the room.

He stumbled as he started to walk, but grabbed a nearby workstation to prevent himself falling to the ground.

He turned to see what had caused him to lose his balance.

The blue edged uniform of a young science ensign with its dead owner lay broken across his path.

He shivered and brought his attention back to the job at hand. The first thing he had to do was subvert the command codes that would lock him out. This he did by the simple procedure of using the fact that the ship had been running when it had lost its crew, which meant all its systems were fully open. Sia tapped in his own command codes as a newly appointed engineer would do, he then reinitialized the computer. Now he was recognized as one of its crew. It did mean that he had only operational and tactical control, he was unable to initiate self-destruct or lock out those with superior codes to his own. That done, he started to ask the computer what condition the ship was in.

The main warp engines were still functioning, they hadn't even been turned off. It was a great stroke of luck that had stopped them exploding as the ship hit the planet surface.

After examining the console of the Chief Engineer, whom he had never known, and whose name he did not know, he worked out what damage the Jem'Hadar attack and the crash landing had done to the Gaunt. He was surprised at the computer's report.

'Singh to the Augustus.'

'What is it Sia?' asked Ohlson.

'Here's what condition the Gaunt is in.

Main engines, including the warp engines are all workable, as far as I can ascertain only a few safety circuits have shut off, probably due to the crash.

Weapons are on-line, one of the two torpedo launchers have been destroyed. It has a full compliment of torpedoes, they didn't have a chance to use them.

Transporters are on-line, as are the shields, but there has been some damage to the shield generators, so I'd guess, and it is only a guess without actually testing them, the shields are probably no more that fifty-percent, and I think aft shields are non-existent.

As for what caused the Gaunt to crash, that is a bit more serious, the deflector dish is kaput, must have taken a lot of blast damage, there are five hull breeches in total, three minor and on their own insignificant breeches along the hull, and two on the bridge.

They are too big even for the emergency force fields to contain. It doesn't help that one of the breeches was right alongside the engineer's station.'

'Why is that important?' asked Ohlson.

'It made it impossible for the repair to be made, it would have killed the engineer, as well as damaging the station which could coordinate the extra power from the auxiliary generators necessary to bolster the force field and seal the breech.'

'So are you telling us that you CAN salvage some bits from the derelict?' the voice was Mc Sorley's.

'Commander, as far as I can tell, this ship is nearly in as good a condition as our own.'

On the Augustus' Bridge Ohlson caught a look from Mc Sorley. 'What is it Commander?'

'I'd like a word in private Captain.'

He paused for only a few seconds. Ohlson stood and started to walk to the briefing room. 'Continue gathering as much data as you can Lieutenant Singh.' To Mc Sorley he said, 'Follow me.

Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the bridge. Keep me posted of any further developments.'

'What is Commander?' they were seated in the briefing room.

'It's just an idea, Lieutenant Singh gave it to me.

If the Gaunt is spaceworthy, and if we can get it out of the atmosphere, then a second platform from which to mount an attack, or an escape, might be more useful that a fully armed and ready Augustus.'

'Two vessels,' he pondered the notion. 'Sia reported a lot of faults, a lot of damage.'

'Yes, but other than the loss of a torpedo launcher he didn't mention anything that can't be either mended or repaired.'

'Can we man the two ships?'

'I think so, but I've another idea too.'

'What?'

'We still have the Cicero on the surface, we might get more salvage, or enough salvage to arm and ready the two ships.'

Ohlson was shaking his head. 'There is next to no guarantee we could find the Cicero, hell we only found the Gaunt by accident.'

'But we could try, and even if we didn't we could combine the Gaunt and the Augustus as an attack formation.

The Dominion might, just might, know the Augustus is still in one piece, but it certainly knows nothing about the Gaunt. If they had we would have seen them searching for it instead of just attacking the Cicero.'

That made sense to Ohlson.

'Here's my suggestion. Use Sia's report and d'Amatsu's analysis of the logs to make sure the ship can be repaired.

If that bit works, then we see how we can get the Gaunt off the surface, tractor beam seems the obvious., then we man both ships and attack or run depending on what we learn of the Dominion intentions.

We will certainly, if we get that far, have the element of surprise, or shock, in our favour.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Two ships would add to the speed and number of transports from the prison.

We may have to be careful about doing anything while on the surface.'

'Why?'

Ohlson then told his first officer of what Smith had discovered.

'It does make it more dangerous if we are detected.

They would not have to pinpoint our position, they could just bombard the planet and wait for it to destroy us or flush us out.' Mc Sorley sighed and brushed her hair subconsciously.

Ohlson stood. 'Let's hear the rest of what Sia and Mico discover, then we'll see if this ship has just started a fleet of its own.'

They returned to their stations on the bridge.

'Ensign Barret?'

'Yes sir.'

'Do another survey of the planet for the Cicero,' he thought some more, 'and of the Jem'Hadar ships we saw come down.

Find me anything else you can that was manufactured, and is sitting on this planet. If it moves I'd rather avoid it.'

'Eh, okay sir, I'll try,' she turned to her console and pondered how she could do what her captain had ordered.

'Sia.'

'Yes Captain.'

'Have a look at the Gaunt's condition with the idea of taking it off planet and into battle.'

There was a pause then a thoughtful, 'yes sir.'

Colimo and Tambecki were both looking at Ohlson.

It was the Bolian who spoke. 'Are we repairing the Gaunt?'

Ohlson shrugged. 'I have no idea, not yet. We'll see what else we can find and salvage, but wouldn't it be nice to have more than one ship in our battle squadron.'

'Battle squadron?' Barret looked very embarrassed when she realized she'd spoken her thoughts aloud.

'You might get your own command a lot earlier than you ever suspected Ensign.'

Barret wondered whether she should comment or not, and decided not.

On the Gaunt, Sia was checking the inventory of the ship, it looked like the quartermaster had been more generous with the Gaunt than the Augustus, extra rations, and several probes were intact, as were four environment suits. _They'll come in handy_, thought the engineer.

Ten minutes later, Sia had completed his survey, d'Amatsu had finished downloading the data that was contained in the logs of the Gaunt's last mission. They were both on the Gaunt's Bridge.

'Sia to Augustus.'

'Come in Sia, what can we do for you?' responded Ohlson. Around him the rest of the crew listened intently.

'We're done here, any word on the transporters?'

T'sella's voice came from Engineering. 'Still be an hour or so, I'm having some difficulty reinitializing the buffers.'

'Don't worry about that for the moment,' Sia was tapping the console in front of him, 'I can use the Gaunt's transporters, their sensors can locate and pinpoint the Augustus, we'll beam to Engineering and met you on the bridge in a short while.'

'See you soon,' ended Ohlson.

'Captain,' Ensign Barret's voice sounded muffled as she had positioned her head close to the console.

'Report,' instructed Ohlson.

'I may have something.

The interference is lessening and the range of our sensors has increased. I have another debris reading half a kilometer to the south, it may even be two large sections.'

'Jem'Hadar or Starfleet?'

'Can't tell, the planet's interference has decreased but it is still strong.'

'Let me know how much the interference is decreasing, and see if you can get any more on those readings. Try a metallurgic scan for phaser residue. If you find that then we can assume the wreckage is Dominion.'

Sia Singh and Mico d'Amatsu entered the Bridge. They had changed from the environmental suits. d'Amatsu carried a tricorder.

'Report Lieutenant Singh, what did you find?'

'I brought back four of the Gaunt's environment suits in case we have to provide for a larger away team in the future.' He waved at d'Amatsu. 'The last entries in the ship's logs are here, audio only, we got one of the captain's logs, the first officer's and the science officer's, the rest were lost. I also have the ship's computer diagnostics of the damage they sustained, as well as much of the sensor data as wasn't corrupted in the attack and crash.'

Ohlson stood up. ' Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the Bridge. I'll listen to these logs in my ready room, join me number one. The rest of you see about those repairs and study the Gaunt to see what we can salvage and what we can loan.' He saw the look on Sia's face. 'Consider whether or not we can get the Gaunt to join us in attacking the penal colony and the battleship, and see what you can find out from the recovered sensor data.'

Sia nodded slowly.

Mc Sorley stood and followed Ohlson to his cabin.

They sat at his desk and he sat the tricorder adjacent to the computer terminal and opened both devices. 'Computer, download all logs of the captain, first officer, and the science officer of the Gaunt and replay in chronological order.

The computer did as it was asked. Of the three log entries the captain's was first.

'Captain's log, the mission has commenced, my crew's morale is high...' The steady and strong voice of Captain Shay filled the room. He had been a small man, but had the gift of a commanding voice, which demanded that the listened heed it. He ended his estimation of the Gaunt as a fine ship. Then the Science Officer spoke. 'Science Officer's log, we have found the Demon class planet, and are readying for combat. The Augustus is taking up its allocated position. I have automated the targeting for the initial four satellites that intelligence have warned us. I believe that I can target the remainder manually.'

Ohlson was looking at Mc Sorley.

'Lieutenant Commander Phil Harrison, good instincts, bad dancer.'

Ohlson let the comments go by unremarked.

'This is Commander Vilnaget, we are under attack, Captain Shay is dead, it was a trap, I have been unable to raise the Augustus and can only assume they have been destroyed t...' They heard the crash as something hit the Gaunt. 'The satellites that were supposed to be defensive buoys were sophisticated weapons' platforms and mines, we hit one with a phaser and then all hell hit us. Jem'Hadar arrived in numbers larger than they were supposed to have. Sensors tell us that a Jem'Hadar battleship is close, there was no clue to that in our briefing.

We are still attempting to contact the Shoeman, no messages have been received... we will try to make a run for it.' The log died.

There were no other entries.

'Whatever hit them did so with great speed they had little to no time to counterattack. It was a very efficient assault.'

'True,' Ohlson was staring at the wall, 'and they don't seem to have any suspicions concerning the Shoeman.'

'No, probably hadn't enough time to consider just how efficient the attack had been.'

'Very efficient, they didn't even have cause to use the battleship.

Doesn't give us anything new to help us decide how best to continue. I wonder what the Gaunt's sensors saw before they stopped recording?'

'Do you really think we can use the Gaunt?'

Ohlson shrugged. 'As I see it we have a couple of problems to overcome.'

Mc Sorley bit back a comment on the captain's 'couple of problems'.

'Warp speed, we have to have that or we'll be picked off inside a minute of leaving the surface.

And space.'

'Space?' Mc Sorley was thinking about starmaps. They had a complete survey of this sector.

'Yes, we'll need a lot more than we have on the Augustus and the Gaunt or we'll not be able to take our people off the penal colony.'

'Oh,' she nodded. 'Have you considered the notion of one ship acting as rearguard while the other goes to warn the Osprey and perhaps bring her back.'

Ohlson was shaking his head. 'They won't come here, not after being warned of one trap.

No, if we want our people we'll have to fight our way to the colony, rescue them and then fight our way home.' He stood up signaling the end of the log scan. 'We may have to work on the assumption that if we've walked into a tarp then the Osprey may have walked into one too.'

They walked back to the Bridge. Good news awaited their arrival.

'Captain,' Barret was all but bursting to get the information out, 'we think we've found something, or somethings.'

'Explain yourself Ensign.'

Mc Sorley took her seat and turned to listen as Barret answered Ohlson.

She glanced at Sia before continuing. 'We used the data from the Gaunt, the ship did an automatic sensor sweep before crashing, I think they were looking for a safe landing zone, and we added it to our own data.

The upshot is that we believe we have found three different sites of crashed ships.'

'Three?'

Sia took up the report. 'Yes, it is definitely three discrete vessels, or at least the most of three vessels, but we can't identify what type of vessels they are.'

Ohlson was thinking.

'Where exactly are these ships then?' asked the first officer.

Barret turned to her console. 'If you will allow me, I'll put the map on the viewscreen?' She waited.

Mc Sorley looked at Ohlson he was still pondering something. 'Do it.'

She did.

The viewscreen ceased showing the swirls of toxic clouds that carpeted the planet and showed a three-dimensional map of the planet instead.

A red spot appeared near the center. 'That's us,' offered Barret by way of explanation.

A blue spot appeared touching the red.

'The Gaunt.'

Three other blue spots appeared on the map. One was south and the two others, which appeared relatively close to each other, where to the northeast.

'What's the scale?' asked Ohlson.

'The one to the south is ten minutes from here, the other two are twenty from here, and twenty-five from the other crash site.' Barret sounded very business like.

'Has there been any sign of the missing thirty Jem'Hadar ships?'

'Nothing sir.'

'Okay lay in a course to the two sites furthest away, let's see what we can get from them,' Ohlson turned to the chief engineer who had stood behind his right side throughout Barret's presentation. 'Sia prepare two, two-man away teams, you in one, and d'Amatsu in the other. We have to save time, if these crashes are viable then we'll leave the first team at the nearest and go to the second. We'll keep in communication for as long as possible but the first team may be alone for some time before we return.'

Sia nodded.

'Permission to go on the first team sir.'

'Granted.' He had been expecting Mc Sorley's request.

'I'd like for the Chief to accompany Mico,' Sia had moved closer to Ohlson.

'Chief can you handle an environment suit?'

'Yes sir. I'll go get ready now sir.' The Bolian stood and walked to where Sia and Mico had left the recovered suits from the Gaunt.

Mc Sorley followed him.

It was Benko who guided the Augustus to the first derelict, and it was her who identified it from the data that appeared on her console. 'One hundred meters straight ahead... and it's Jem'Hadar.'

The vessel slowed and them settled down in a rocky basin, the clouds were twisting in eddies around them, but visibility was good - for the planet - less than twenty meters, and the wreck started at ten.

'It looks to be only half a ship,' said Smith.

'Starboard nacelle is missing, so to is part of the engine room.' Kausler was sitting forward studying the enemy ship. 'The weapons system may be intact, certainly all the places for them are still there.'

'Could we use their weapons?' asked Ohlson.

Kausler thought a moment. 'The disrupters would be a waste of time, they would be good, but are not compatible with Starfleet phasers. The torpedoes could be used, they would require a slight modification, ad would be only about seventy percent as powerful as Starfleet's, but good none the less.'

Marcus smiled. Weapons' systems seemed to bring out the eloquence in Kausler.

'Sia have you been following all that?'

'Yes, Captain, do you want us to continue?'

'Yes, you and Commander Mc Sorley investigate the ship, see what weapons and intelligence you can recover.' He thought for a moment, 'take a phaser rifle each, and be careful.' To Tambecki he said, 'how long to reach the second ship and then return?'

'Ten to fifteen minutes.'

'Stay safe for twenty minutes maximum.'

'Will do,' with that Lieutenant-Commander Mc Sorley and Lieutenant Singh exited the airlock. They had walked only a few meters towards the clearly visible Dominion vessel when the Augustus rose and rushed off to the second site.


	3. Chapter 3

Mc Sorley had not been expecting this much trouble with walking through the sporadic gusts. She was having difficulty keeping her balance. The phaser rifle was hanging by her side, it moved awkwardly and threatened to drag her to the ground.

'Only a few more meters,' said Singh. He was already at the insect-like ship.

Mc Sorley leaned forward and caught hold of the edge of the vessel.

'The entrance is down here,' Singh had made his way to where the underside was. He walked into the darkness. Mc Sorley followed. She heard a whoosh, then a ramp descended from the belly of the downed ship.

'Ready?'

'Yes.' she answered.

Sia led the way into the vessel. 'Augustus can you hear me.'

'Loud and clear,' responded Ohlson.

'We are inside the ship,' he had his tricorder out and was sampling the atmosphere as well as probing the interior.

'Two dead over here,' said Mc Sorley, 'decompression by the look of it. One is a Vorta.'

'They lost their artificial gravity about the same time they had a hull breech, I'd say all were dead before they reached the surface.'

Mc Sorley found the Vorta's headpiece, she used her tricorder to download data from the device.

Singh found the main computer and tapped on its controls.

He read the results, then used his tricorder to translate.

'Anything?'

'Yes,' answered the engineer, 'weapons seem to be in one piece, transporters are working, life support is destroyed, as is navigation and engines. If this ship hadn't landed so hard they would have almost certainly had a warp core breech.'

'Why did landing hard prevent a breech?' asked Mc Sorley.

'The hull fraction lowered the temperature and the crash severed the power feeds and stopped the core overloading. It's in one piece still, although all the conduits and terminals have been trashed.'

'So it'll never fly again.'

'That's about it.'

The communication link with the Augustus ended.

'Can you restore the link with the away team?'

T'sella spoke from Engineering. 'Sir, the planetary inference won't allow the link to be made unless we move closer to them.'

'Okay continue to the second site.'

Tambecki was watching her console intently. 'It's dead ahead, fifty meters.'

'Can you identify the ship?'

'No. I have never seen a ship like this before, the database is drawing a blank too, although that might from a lack of clarity because of our position.'

They could all see the ship on the viewscreen. It was long, and slender, and apparently in one piece.'

'd'Amatsu and Colimo?'

'Yes sir,' answered d'Amatsu.

'Prepare to disembark, search the vessel, ascertain the status and salvage potential of the alien ship and then return to us as quickly as you can.'

'Will do.' And with that the duo entered the airlock. They waited until Tambecki had settled the craft gently alongside the object of interest.

'Go.'

They opened the hatch to the airlock and walked into the swirls and clouds. Visibility was relatively good, they saw the hull of the downed vessel almost straight away.

It was thin, looked to be as high as a Roman class ship, but many times longer.

Colimo was the first to reach it. He found a man-sized hole in the fuselage, from the singe marks around the hole he guessed phasers, or some similar blast weapon had caused the damage. He walked into the darkness and switched on the light that was strapped to his left arm. d'Amatsu was beside him as the beam cut through the dark.

The ship was little more than a tube, at least that was what it appeared to be from their point of view. Another smaller tube ran along its side, Colimo guessed this was a thruster engine of some kind.

The main tube was ribbed along the length, and the predominant colour was brown. Dust gathered around the hull breech.

'No bodies,' Colimo spoke for the benefit of those listening on the Augustus. 'The ship is built as a big corridor, we can't see to either of the ends, but we will be walking towards one of them.

By the height I'd say the users of this were a little taller than we are.' He started to the right. The light showed the ribbed sides. There were no apparent recesses or cabins, just the tubular structure. He wondered what had been the function of such a vessel.

It took them a few minutes of slow walking to reach the end. There was a door, a sliding door, and it was locked. 'I can't get in, the mechanism seems to be jammed.' Colimo was tapping at the console to the left of the door, it only had two buttons, large and with unknown hieroglyphs written on them. He tapped them again, nothing happened.

'We'll have to blast the door,' d'Amatsu waited to hear what response that would have.

'If that's what it takes,' answered Ohlson, 'do it.'

'I think I know what this is,' it was Colimo who spoke. d'Amatsu looked in his direction. The Chief was scanning the walls of the tube with his tricorder. 'There are traces of fossil fuels, a variety of them. I think this was part of an old tanker, the part that contained the fuel.'

On the Augustus, Ohlson glanced at Barret, check out the chief's hunch, and if he's right narrow down the race that built it. I would like to know what that vessel was doing prior to it crashing here.'

Ensign Barret tapped her console and started to do as she had been asked.

'Could be some derelict they used as target practice,' opined Smith.

'Yes, that's what I was thinking, but I'd still like it to be verified. I also want to know if there is anything of worth that we could salvage.'

'I have a match,' announced the ensign, 'it's a section of a hundred year old Cardassian liquid carrier. They used to transport fuel and drink.'

'So what is missing from what we have on the surface?' asked Ohlson.

'Command module, and major engines, that's why we didn't find a match we had no power signatures or command code prefixes to compare.'

Colimo put away the tricorder. 'Are you ready?'

d'Amatsu nodded.

It took four blasts of the phaser rifle before the door yielded.

When the air, or atmosphere, had cleared, they could see the interior of a section command module.

'That's what they called these small cabins,' Colimo was telling d'Amatsu, 'they had one man here whose duty it was to verify connection and separation of the container to the actual tug or transport vessel pulling it.'

d'Amatsu scanned the interior. It was small, a viewscreen, smaller than either man was used to was on the wall opposite the door. In front of them as they had entered, facing the viewscreen, were a seat and a console, that was the height of functionality on this piece of architecture. There was a small cupboard-like space to the left of the entrance door.

'That was where the person slept and toileted,' said Colimo as he watched d'Amatsu look around the room.

The Bolian placed his tricorder on the console and tapped a few times on the command interface. 'I'm downloading the database, it has probably been erased except for the last few moments. It should tell us what happened. Even if this was scrapped, they computer would be probably part of the obsolete hardware.'

'There seems to be nothing else on this ship to investigate.'

'He's right Captain,' said Colimo, 'I'd say we're done.' He picked up the tricorder and looked at the indicator. 'There is a few seconds of something here, I'd guess its the communications just before it crashed.'

'Okay, return to the Augustus and we'll go and get the others.' Ohlson nodded to Tambecki. 'As soon as they are inside get us to the Jem'Hadar ship. We'll investigate the third derelict later.'

Mc Sorley was behind a bulkhead near the Bridge. She was hunkering down trying to be as quiet as she could, Singh was nowhere to be seen, the last she knew he had been examining the exterior of the vessel, to ascertain whether the weapons were salvageable or trashed. She hoped he was all right, she gripped her phaser rifle a little tighter.

Two minutes earlier, she had heard a noise, it was metallic and she had turned to find out the cause of the sound. She had thought Singh was coming back.

Into the mouth of the doorway had fallen two shadows, and neither belonged to Lieutenant Sia Singh. She had hid behind this bulkhead and waited. Since then the duo had came in and looked around, fortunately they had not scanned the interior of the ship for life. Then they had concentrated on one of the panels on the Bridge. Deborah had risked a look, as she had suspected they were Jem'Hadar, and for some reason they were interested in the navigation console. Both carried short rifles, and looked very dangerous. She knew she could take them in a surprise attack, but she wanted to know how many more of them there were, and where was Sia?

Sia was wondering where the Commander was.

He had taken advantage of an improvement in visibility, he would have guessed it had increased to thirty meters.

He was standing behind a large boulder sheltering from the gusts of wind and trying to hail the Augustus before it arrived, and landed smack between two Jem'Hadar attack cruisers.

He had been on the vessel's port side examining the front of the weapons, they had appeared to be undamaged from the crash, when he had heard the first of the two ships land meters from the wreck.

He had taken cover. The party did not seem to expect anyone else to be here, they had not scanned or even checked the crash site for intruders. Four Jem'Hadar soldiers had traveled to the ship, two had gone inside, the other two had placed themselves in the entrance. They all carried rifles.

Sia tapped his combadge again. 'Augustus come in, you really want to hear what I have to tell you.'

Nothing.

He gripped his phaser rifle and waited.

Mc Sorley checked the time, if all were going as planned the Augustus would be due back any minute. She thought about a plan, she had to assume that Sia was fine, if he had been killed or captured then these Jem'Hadar would hardly be as relaxed. So he was not too far away and waiting. But while the engineer may be fine for the time being, the Augustus was heading straight back to the Dominion vessel that had brought these, and whoever else was outside. She had to warn Ohlson and the rest. She tapped her combadge, she was directly behind the Jem'Hadar, her rifle was pointing in their direction.

Outside, from his place of concealment, Sia was doing the same. 'Augustus, come in please.'

There was a low crackle, then... 'Augustus here, what's the situation?'

He checked that the conversation was unheard by the two at the entrance to the crashed ship. 'Two Jem'Hadar ships have set down alongside the other, we are separated, I am outside while Commander Mc Sorley is inside, so far we have not been detected.'

The tension on the Bridge had risen as Sia made his report. 'Can you remain out of sight?'

Mc Sorley was inching away from the two soldiers, when her combadge sounded. 'Two Jem'Hadar ships have set down alongside the other, we are separated, I am outside while Commander Mc Sorley is inside, so far we have not been detected.'

Sia's voice was low, but not low enough to go unheard by the Dominion soldiers. They turned, one diving to the right while the other moved to the left.

Mc Sorley fired as Ohlson asked his question. The blast from her phaser rifle darted at the one going to the right, it caught him in the chest and sent a cascade of sparks around the falling body.

She dived back behind the bulkhead and tapped her badge. 'They know we're here.'

Ohlson didn't ask for any elaboration. 'Red Alert, shields up, power the weapons.'

Colimo had the shields up seconds after the order had been given. Kausler was poised at the weapons.

'Bring us in Ben.'

Sia had caught what Mc Sorley had said, he raised his rifle and blasted the two guards with a wide beam. The blast hit both and sent them to the ground. He rapidly narrowed the beam and fired at the two Jem'Hadar soldiers as they attempted to rise. He caught one full in the face, he collapsed back again, but Sia only hit the second in the arm. Then he was behind cover.

'Commander are you all right?'

A pause. 'Yes, there were two that I know of here, now there's one...' the sound of a disrupter blast striking close to the speaker interrupted the conversation momentarily, 'but give me time.' Another sound, this time a phaser's distinctive hiss. 'All clear, do you know what else is here?'

'One dead, one wounded just outside the door, so far the others in the two ships have not appeared.'

Mc Sorley thought, from her memory and the time she had served in Intelligence she dredged up the information that the attack cruisers carried forty-two personnel, or soldiers, and a Vorta. So there were two ships, eighty-four soldiers and two Vorta, they had killed three and injured one, only eighty-one and the Vorta to go. The mathematics done, she started to walk to the doorway.

Sia was watching the ships, they seemed to be apparently oblivious to what had happened on the planet's surface. He heard a noise, then he saw the door to the ship nearest him open, down the ramp ran eight Jem'Hadar, and they headed to the crash site and Mc Sorley. _So,_ he thought, _now they know._

He started to move to tap his badge and make the report, but a gust of wind knocked him back against the rock. He fell awkwardly, and only kept the rifle because its strap stayed around his arm.

He jumped up, and then realized that there had been no gust, what had knocked him down had been the blast of close range phasers as the Augustus had arrived.

Ohlson eyed the screen, he could make out only a little of what was out there. The Augustus had swooped between the two Jem'Hadar vessels and settled there. Phasers had sought out and demolished the one nearest seconds before the Roman class ship landed, the falling debris buffeted everyone on board. The ship that had been destroyed had been the one sending out a search party to the crash. The eight soldiers that had been on the exit ramp were dead. They had been vaporized.

The second ship was hit and shuddered as the phasers sliced into the exposed hull. Neither vessel had their shields raised. Ohlson had no intention of giving them time to do so.

The vessel was rocked as punctures appeared along the hull and where the Bridge was sited.

'Life signs?'

Tambecki corrected the pitching and tossing that the blasts were causing. Barret was scanning the two wrecks. 'None, that last blast ruptured the hull in Engineering and the Bridge. They are all dead.

'That one isn't.' Smith was watching the viewscreen. It showed lines of disrupter fire coming from a rock near the original crash. There was an answering blast from off the screen and to the left, then another blast struck the source of the attack, it came from the edge of the downed Jem'Hadar craft.

There was a rumbling sound, it reverberated throughout the craft, Singh was pitched sidelong towards a rock as the tremors shook the surface.

The planet's seismic spasm had done little to put Mc Sorley's aim off, she fired again, the Dominion soldier crumpled against the rock he had used to lever himself upright.

'All clear,' it was Mc Sorley's voice.

'Where's the lieutenant?' asked Ohlson.

'Here, about ten meters off the port side and heading home.' He stood up, picked up his fallen rifle, and checked for injury and damage, he could see nothing.

'Both of you get back as quickly as possible, Ensign T'sella?'

'Yes, Captain,' came the disembodied voice from Engineering. 'Did they get any messages off about what happened?'

'No, I would doubt that they could have sent anything out of this atmosphere.'

'Good, prepare for departure.'

'They are boarding now,' Benko was releasing the door locks and watched as her console told her Mc Sorley and Singh had deposited themselves inside the airlock, then they were inside the ship.

Another tremor, slight compared to the first, rocked the Augustus.

'Take us out of here Lieutenant.'

Tambecki was on the controls, the Augustus reared off the planet's surface turned a little to one side and then half-impulse power pushed the vessel away from the debris and evidence of a raider.

'What happened there Lieutenant Smith?'

'The blasts of the battle, they have caused some surface tension in the planet's mantle. Its very thin here Captain, less than thirty meters from the start of a fault line, that's what separates us from a volcanic eruption.'

Ohlson took in what Smith had told him, he turned to Benko. 'One hundred kilometers should do it, halt us and keep your eyes peeled. Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the Bridge.

Away team.'

'Yes sir,' Mc Sorley's voice sounded over the communications system. She was out of breath from her run.

'Meet me in the briefing room, Smith, Singh, and Colimo, you're with me.' With that Ohlson stood and walked off the Bridge.

Those named followed.

They were all sitting around the table when Mc Sorley and Singh arrived.

'Right I want to know what we have at our disposal, I want to know what we can salvage, and how long it'll take to have it integrated with the Augustus.' Ohlson waited.

'You know the state the Augustus is in,' Singh took a seat, 'we can fight and we can be in optimal condition inside two hours.

The Gaunt can give us phaser banks and torpedoes, and perhaps a few energy cells. It is in good condition.

The Jem'Hadar ship can also give us weapons and perhaps a Dominion communicator, maybe even a few codes, but little else.'

'We did recover some communications from the ship, it might tell us what they knew of our attack.'

'You,' he addressed Mc Sorley, 'find out what was in these communications.' He turned to the Bolian. 'What of the Cardassian ship?'

Colimo was shaking his head. 'Nothing worth a trip back, it looks from the read-outs that it was scrapped in target practice, there's nothing of worth to be got from it.'

Ohlson was thinking. 'Could the Cardassian be made spaceworthy?'

Singh looked at the captain. 'Eh, yes I suppose it could,' he was looking at a data padd containing the scans that d'Amatsu and Colimo had made of the ship. 'They concentrated their target practice on its engine housing and weapons', or where its weapons would have been if it had been armed, I could replace an impulse drive from the Jem'Hadar ships, but,' he added, 'it would have no weapons, no shields and a minimal of life support.'

'Could the Jem'Hadar weapons and shields be converted to give the ship some defense?'

Singh was thinking about that. He nodded. 'The disrupters wouldn't be compatible, there's just no place to put them. As for the shields, I'm not sure they'd do much good against phasers, but they would protect it against space debris.

There is one problem, if you want to travel any distance in the Cardassian derelict.'

'What's that?' asked the captain.

'There is no deflector dish, the ship would be destroyed at any warp speed. Space dust and rocks would hammer into its hull like cannon.'

Ohlson waved that point away. 'We'll sort that out later, now I want the ship readied for space, it's the only thing big enough in these parts to convey the prisoners home.'

'What of the Gaunt?' asked the first officer.

'What about it?' Singh was leaning forward.

'Can it be used as a second assault ship?'

'Yes, it can be repaired in a few hours, but if you are planning on using the Gaunt and the Cardassian ship then you may find two problems. One, it'll take a bit longer than originally envisaged to salvage and use parts from the downed Dominion craft to augment the two federation and one Cardassian ship, if we can find enough spare parts.'

'You mentioned a second problem,' pointed out Ohlson.

'Yes,' Sia paused before continuing, 'it'll be hard to crew the three ships, it may even be impossible.'

'Lieutenant Smith, just how unstable is the planet, is there going to be any more aftershocks?'

'The planet is thin in spots, we're near one of those spots, if anything happened there would be resultant volcanic activity, perhaps a full-bodied eruption. As for aftershocks,' he shrugged, 'I would be guessing, and it wouldn't even be an educated guess.'

Ohlson stood to indicate that the meeting was over. 'We'll worry about that later, for now I want you,' he said pointing to Singh, 'and d'Amatsu to repair the Cardassian ship from the Jem'Hadar ship, then work on us and the Gaunt.. We need everything to be ready in only a few hours. Those Jem'Hadar will be missed, and even with the two we destroyed they still outnumber us hereabouts.'

They moved back to their stations.

Mc Sorley linked up with Ohlson. 'Do you know who will be assigned to the other vessels yet?'

'No, I want you to assign the crews.'

She nodded. 'Where would you like me, the Cardassian ship or the Gaunt?'

'The Cardassian, if we succeed it'll be there that the prisoners are transported, and we'll need a ranking officer there to make the prisoners believe what is happening, if we can get them.'

She agreed. 'I suggest Sia take the Gaunt, he can captain, while T'sella can do Tactical, and Colimo can take the conn.'

'Agreed.'

'I'd like Ben with me.'

Ohlson thought about that. 'Agreed, Barret can take the conn here, she has the exams it's about time she had the practice. Kausler stays here she knows the weapons better than anyone does, and Smith can take ops. d'Amatsu can be your engineer, you may need someone who knows what Sia and he has jury-rigged together.

That's four on the Augustus, three on the Gaunt, and three on the transporter vessel.'

'It'd be enough to get everything moving, but it doesn't allow us to take casualties.' Mc Sorley pondered this. 'If we utilize some of the freed prisoners as we get them it may take the pressure off.'

Ohlson was shaking his head. 'No, we can't use any of the outsiders.'

'Outsiders?'

'Yes, we still don't know where the traitor, or traitors are, and when we start moving the prisoners out of the camp we won't have the luxury to check everyone or to vet them. We're on our own, if one ship takes casualties then we abandon it and transport the people to one of the other ships.'

Mc Sorley nodded. 'I'll go and ensure Sia is ready.' She left the captain and headed to Engineering.

On the Bridge, Ohlson walked to the captain's chair. He looked at it, he wasn't sure whether or not he liked the job, not just yet anyway. He sat down. 'Lieutenant Tambecki, take us back to the Jem'Hadar ship. Set us down close and Ensign Barret keep an eye on the sensors I don't wish to be surprised by any unannounced visitors.

Alex?'

Alex Smith turned to look quizzically at Ohlson. 'Yes sir?'

'I want a plan to use phasers, explosives or whatever it takes to detonate the planet at the site of the Jem'Hadar ships.

I want it to look like a geological occurrence has killed all of them and destroyed the ships.'

Smith was shaking his head. 'Metallurgical analysis will betray that weapons' fire was used.'

Ohlson was shaking his head too. 'It doesn't have to be cast iron, all I want is something to give them, and give us some time before they realize that something is very wrong.

I need a natural disaster, started by us.'

'I'll get right on it.' With that he bowed over his console and started to work on the problem that the captain had given him.

Ten minutes later, they were at the site of the trio of downed Jem'Hadar.

Benko Tambecki landed the Augustus on the spot from where they had launched their attack the last occasion they were here.

The ship didn't even jolt as it touched down.

'Bridge to Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu are you ready?'

'Yes sir,' in the airlock Singh was just finishing off checking d'Amatsu's pack, 'we're ready to depart on your instructions.'

'Very good, go and get whatever you'll need for the Cardassian ship, and keep the communications open. We'll be right here waiting.'

The airlock controls only took a few seconds to expel the air and equalize the pressure, then they were out.

The gusts had lessened, and they made good time getting from the Augustus to the ramp leading into the Dominion craft. They passed the bodies of the two who had guarded the entrance.

'You get the shield generator, and I'll get the control systems.'

d'Amatsu nodded and left Singh. The Indian went to the Bridge and straight to the console that controlled shields and weapons.

It took Sia fifteen minutes to remove the inner workings of the panel that controlled the system and another five to get it to the Augustus. He left it in the airlock and returned to assist Mico. He found him in the remains of Engineering, half the compartment was missing, probably still orbiting the planet.

Mico was almost finished. They had to manhandle the crate-sized object out of Engineering and to the Augustus. 'Did you find out why that Jem'Hadar team had returned to the wreck for in the first place?'

Sia strained as they reached an awkward spot, a group of rocks made the carrying more difficult in the gusts than it should be. 'Yes, it was in superb condition, I can only assume that it was sensible salvage. It was nothing of great interest to us, no intelligence or sensor data.' They were past the rocks.

'Still no transporters?' Mico was getting red in the face as they lugged the box into the swirls of light cloud.

'Not with us doing all these odd jobs, T'sella is working on it, she's been working almost non-stop since we lost them. I hope they'll be ready be the time we have to unload.

They were.

After getting the pieces on board, the Augustus swiftly rose from the surface, banked to one side and headed off to the Cardassian ship.

'They are operational,' was how the Vulcan announced the return of the transporters.

Ohlson smiled, things were starting to come together.

'I think I have a way to cover our tracks.' Smith sat by his console, he looked grim and tired.

'What is it?' asked Ohlson.

'If we can ignite one of the downed Dominion ships' nacelles, the resulting explosion should trigger enough background ground shifting to increase the radiation locally, it may even cause a volcanic fissure. Either way, it'll destroy the site and make it impossible to betray that we were there and that phasers were fired. If we use a small seismic probe that should be enough to trigger the nacelle.'

Ohlson smiled, another part of the plan was taking shape.

'Captain?'

It was Singh who spoke from Engineering.

'What is it Sia?'

'Before the site is destroyed, there is something I would like to remove from one of the ships.'

'What's that?'

'One of the nacelles.'

'Why?'

'With the transporters working, I think I can attach it to the Cardassian ship.'

'But,' said Mc Sorley, 'isn't it to have impulse engines, and isn't it impossible for it to go over warp without the deflector dish.'

'Well, I wasn't thinking of using it as an engine.'

Ohlson looked to his first officer she shook her head.

'Then as what?'

'A torpedo.'

Mc Sorley was thinking. 'Even without a payload, if a warp nacelle hit something it could do a lot of damage. Plasma from the nacelle would be corrosive as well as volatile.'

Sia heard her over the open communicator. 'I was thinking of the big Dominion ship.'

'Good idea, Sia we'll see what we can do when we return there.'

'We're approaching the site of the Cardassian derelict.' Tambecki was watching the controls and guiding the ship to as close to the Cardassian as possible. Which was close, they landed less than ten meters from the entrance.

'Okay Sia, are you and Mico in your environment suits?'

'Yes.'

'All right transport over to the derelict with the shield generator and controls be as quick as you can. We've been lucky so far not bumping into any more patrols.'

From Engineering came the engineer's voice. 'Two to beam over, energize.'

It was Kausler on Tactical who initiated the transportation.

In the Cardassian cabin Sia Singh, Mico d'Amatsu and the equipment to reconnect the engine and to install and operate the shields materialized.

They quickly went about their tasks, Sia installed the controls in what had been the Cardassian's living quarters, he made two seats for the crew.

Mico took the generator to the tube they had traveled along and placed it near the rear of the ship. All that remained was for the duo to connect the shields to work via the ship's sensor array. It would not be as efficient as it might have been but it was much better than nothing. If they could not find any sensor array, they had the equipment with them to jury-rig some crude but workable modules.

Then they set about providing the ship with internal atmosphere and gravity.

They took half an hour.

'I can't believe we have much more time,' said Ohlson.

'How will we know that everything is still in place,' asked Barret, 'they might have moved the prisoners on to the bigger ship. Or even moved ships, in or out of the sector.'

The same thought had crossed Ohlson's mind too. 'We won't Ensign, but I do intend to find that out prior to us charging to the rescue.'

'How?' asked Mc Sorley, she had turned in her seat at helm to see Ohlson's face.

He smiled. 'That is a problem I would like you to solve for me, number one.'

Mc Sorley made a blowing sound and turned to look out of the viewscreen, she wondered if she could think up a way of learning more from outside the protective cover that was this planet's atmosphere. 'How much time do you think we have?'

'Hours.'

Mc Sorley, Ohlson and Barret turned to look at Smith.

'Hours, and only a few,' he repeated.

'How do you come to that estimation?' Gretchen Kausler had been working on the calibration of the new weapons and automating several routine, and some not so routine, attack patterns into the main console. She did not, as a rule, indulge in idle conversation. The others wondered why she had chosen this topic to speak up on.

Smith did not seem awed by having gotten a question from the taciturn weapons' officer. 'I've been looking at what this atmosphere, the acidic parts mostly, are doing to our hull and sensor arrays..' He paused then continued. 'The hull is fine, but the warp nacelles are being corroded faster then the rest, within hours, and I'd estimate three, perhaps four, the corrosion will lead to plasma leaks, and inevitably explosions.'

'Well,' said Kausler returning her attention to the state of alert of the tactical station, 'I did ask.'

'Three hours?' Mc Sorley was looking at the medic.

'He's correct,' put in Barret, 'I've just checked his results.

The scientific result says three point six five hours, plus or minus point three.' She shrugged as she saw the others looking at her. 'What?'

'An estimate does not have to be so precise Ensign.' Ohlson was back to pondering his next move.

Barret looked embarrassed.

'Three hours, hmm, well it isn't as if we've a choice.' Ohlson had came to a decision. 'Okay, then we'll have to rush the repairs to the other vessels.

Sia,' he addressed the engineer, 'come back to the Augustus with Mister d'Amatsu. We'll hurry and salvage the last of the equipment from the Dominion craft and then leave you two here while we get the Gaunt ready.'

'We're ready to return now sir,' said Sia.

'Beam them back then.'

Benko Tambecki did so. 'Get us to the Jem'Hadar ship, as fast as you can lieutenant.'

Benko checked her console to ensure that the transportation was complete and the duo where in Engineering. Satisfied, she tapped her console and the ship banked ten degrees and then flew to the rendezvous with the crashed ships. She guided the ship over the now familiar terrain and reached their destination inside ten minutes.

'Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu ready for departure,' Mc Sorley was checking the area outside the Augustus to ensure that the environment had not became even more inhospitable than usual, it hadn't.

'Good luck Sia,' Ohlson was leaning forward, 'be quick, and keep the communication link open.'

The engineers were out of their ship and alongside the nacelle that had become the center of their interest. Sia had brought a small torch that could cut through just about any metal, it took them fifteen minutes, and the nacelle was free from its host ship.

Ten more minutes and several sections of the engines and some paneling had been isolated and transported over to the Augustus.

He had already cleared the means of transporting the nacelle with the captain.

They were all on board the Augustus. as it hovered twenty meters off the ground.

'Engage the tractor beam.'

Mc Sorley engaged the device. She was monitoring the console as she did so. A confinement beam kept what plasma there was in place, the last thing they needed was a major plasma leak to increase the potential for unwanted explosions.

The beam swept from the Roman class vessel and surrounded the free nacelle. The large piece of metal tubing started to lift.

'Take us to the Cardassian.'

Tambecki flexed her shoulders and set her controls. The Augustus swung slowly to one side, then the nacelle followed. The ship rose in the air, the low-level clouds fought to engulf the invader. Below them the piece of machinery moved as if attached to the Augustus by invisible strings.

They were clear of the ground, and any known obstacles. Tambecki started to speed up the ship, they moved rapidly into the twisting chaos that passed for weather on the planet.

To Smith they seemed to be barreling along blindly in a suicidal rate of velocity, but they made it to the Cardassian in fifteen minutes.

'Put us down to the Cardassian as close as possible.'

The lieutenant took up Ohlson's instruction.

'Shouldn't we give it a proper name, it seems rather redundant to keep referring to it as 'the Cardassian'?

Ohlson looked at Barret. 'Good idea Ensign, okay then christen it!'

'Me?'

The captain nodded. 'Why not you.'

She thought for a moment. 'If the enemy hears us, why not let them think its another Roman class Starfleet vessel. It might give them pause for thought.'

'True,' added Benko, 'especially that we suspect one of the enemy used to be a friend.'

'The Caesar!'

'Okay, Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu, prepare to disembark to the Caesar.'

'Lieutenant Tambecki, put the nacelle down near the ship and wait for any instructions that the away team will give.'

'Aye sir.'

Ten minutes passed before the engineer and his assistant had all the material they required where they wanted. The nacelle was moved into the hull of the now U.S.S Caesar. They put it at the rear and shielded it from where the freed prisoners would be housed. The duo of engineers checked the atmosphere, they had reconnected and supplied the original environment control system.

The air was humid.

'It's hot, are the controls broken?' d'Amatsu was unsure of what to do with the strange array of chips that greeted him as he removed the paneling of the environmental controls. 'How should I repair this?'

'You don't,' answered the Indian, 'put the panel back, the temperature and humidity is perfectly normal - if you're a Cardassian. It's easy fixed.

Computer?'

The computer responded in a male Cardassian voice full of confidence and authority. 'Yes.'

'Lower the ambient temperature ten degrees Kelvin and the humidity to ten percent.'

There was a mechanical whirl and then the room became cooler.

'Much better,' purred d'Amatsu, 'what do we do now?'

'Report back than the Caesar has environment, weapons, and power.'

'I hear you Mister Singh, congratulations to you both.' Ohlson was rubbing his hands together. 'Gentlemen prepare for transportation, we've another ship to ready.'

'I'd like to speak to you sir.'

Ohlson looked at Mc Sorley, she had just returned from some business away from the Bridge, Ensign T'sella accompanied her.

'Lieutenant Tambecki, you have the Bridge.'

They walked to the briefing room.

'I've reviewed the communications logs from the downed Jem'Hadar ship with Ensign T'sella.'

Ohlson waited.

'It was one of the two that the Cicero hit.

We got some tactical data from them on their orders prior to our arrival.'

'Can you put it on the screen?'

'No, they have this habit of keeping it for the eyes and ears of the Vorta alone. Here's what we got.

They knew the names and weaponry of the four ships that arrived. Even had the crew lists. They had the general coordinates.' She paused. 'Which is a bit of a puzzle. If they only used the coordinates that they had received then they would have missed us.

Somehow the information was updated just before we arrived.'

T'sella continued. 'There was a damaged section in the recovered files, so I can't tell you where that extra data came from.'

The two fell silent. 'Was there more?'

Mc Sorley looked at T'sella.

The Vulcan spoke again. 'We have reason to believe that the U.S.S. Hawaii survived the attack in which its crew was captured.'

'Elaborate.'

'The data included a sensor sweep of this complete region. It has given us a good schematic of the prison and its power supply. It also gave us a record of a ship, smaller than the battleship and situated on this planet.'

'Here, but wouldn't the atmosphere destroy it?'

'Eventually,' agreed the Vulcan, 'but one of the readings suggests that the Dominion have used their shields to conceal it.'

'Why? What condition is it in?'

Mc Sorley shrugged. 'We don't know either of the answers to those questions. We do have the coordinates but little else.

There is no identification of the traitor, but they, the ship, was told to target only the Gaunt, and the Cicero. We know that command came from the battleship.' She paused again as she told of the last nugget of information that they recovered. 'They were specifically told to ignore the Shoeman.'

'Well,' said Ohlson, 'that may go some way to explain why we aren't tripping over all those Jem'Hadar patrols. They must have less general patrol routes than we had originally thought. Hell, they have a great prize to protect.'

'They could recover a lot of useful intelligence from the Hawaii, technological as well as sensory.'

Ohlson nodded agreement. 'But, that would not explain why they are hiding it.

Okay, there is little we can do about the Hawaii at this stage. Let's get back to getting the Gaunt spaceworthy.'

The meeting was over.

Fifteen minutes later, they were touching down alongside the Gaunt. In the airlock Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley, Lieutenants Singh and d'Amatsu, and Ensign T'sella waited the all clear to proceed to the stricken vessel. They all knew their assignments and how important it was to get the work done in time.

As they waited Singh turned to Mc Sorley. 'Have you got a way for us to gather intelligence on the penal colony and the Dominion ships?'

She shook her head. 'No, not yet.' She had little time to sit down quietly and think about how they could get that data. She was aware that the communications link was an open one, and the crew where waiting to hear anything they could construe as optimistic news. 'But, I'm working on it.'

Sia smiled, beside him d'Amatsu nodded too. She wondered just how they where going to do the impossible, fly into sensor range and return, without raising any Dominion eyebrows.

Her brow creased in thought, _did the Dominion personnel have eyebrows?_ Then another thought struck her. 'Captain?'

'Yes number one?'

'I think I do have a way of getting the information.'

On the Bridge Ohlson smiled. 'Tell me all about it on your return.'

The away teams scrambled the short distance from the Augustus to the Gaunt. Sia and d'Amatsu commenced repairs on the hull, some breeches were sealed with plating from the internal bulkheads, and two others were patched with improvised forcefields. One corridor was sealed at both ends as it had a three meter slash along it length and repairs would take too long.

Mc Sorley initialized the control systems, she also replaced a fuel cell from the Gaunt's own stores that had been burnt out in the crash.

T'sella had checked the internal and external sensors, then calibrated the communications so they were on the same frequency as the Augustus.

Outside the four cleared as much of the debris as they could from against the hull of the Gaunt, then they turned their attention to the deflector disk.

'It's gone,' Sia was standing swaying in the eddies that buffeted the four, 'there isn't enough left to rig up a partial deflector.'

Mc Sorley sighed. 'Do you hear that Captain?'

'We hear you loud and clear.'

'There you have it, the Gaunt, and the Caesar have no warp capabilities.'

'We'll make do Commander, now return it the Augustus, it's time we heard your method for gathering intelligence, and then it'll be time to visit the last derelict before we allocate the crews.'

'Give me a report on each craft, outlining weapons, top speed, and defense mechanisms.'

Sia Singh started. 'The Augustus, we have full weapons, including phasers and photon torpedoes, we have sixteen Starfleet issue and six Jem'Hadar. We have warp power, and full transporters, and shielding. We are in optimal condition.

'The Gaunt has phasers, and torpedoes. We can get to full impulse, cannot go to warp for the same reason as the Caesar, neither have functioning deflector disks, The Gaunt also has transporters, and the shields are fully repaired too.

The Caesar,' he paused as if he liked the sound of the new ship to the armada, 'has one phaser bank, no torpedoes, except for the nacelle that we adopted. It, the nacelle has a short range and little accuracy, but may do against a static target. It can be transported away from the ship and then aimed.

The Caesar also has a transporter, but only one, it can transport one person at a time, they were only meant to hold one pilot, and it has shields. It can reach full impulse too.'

'Good,' said the captain, 'good.

Take your places, we're going to visit the last derelict. Perhaps we can get a deflector dish and some added weaponry.'

Twenty-one minutes later, the Augustus was hovering over the site of the last detected crash.

'It is the Cicero, there's no doubt about that,' reported Barret. She was reading the computer's sensor readings. 'I can put a graphical display on the screen for you, planetary ionization is relatively low here.'

'Do it.' Ohlson was rubbing his chin as he watched the screen show a fog free landscape and the outlines of the debris.

'What a mess,' murmured Tambecki.

Mc Sorley agreed.

The ship had broken into five pieces. The largest was the bridge section. It had ended up ploughing a furrow nearly half a kilometer long through the sandy surface of the planet. The nose of the bridge section was completely buried under the pile of earth that had gathered in the crash.

'Is there any hull integrity at all?'

Barret tapped her console and searched for an answer. 'Yes, the Bridge itself is still in one piece.' She tapped again. 'The crash did not defeat the hull and shields, it appears that the inertial dampers collapsed. That would have caused a sudden stop to throw anyone still alive on the bridge against the hull at great speed. No one could survive that.'

'Sia put on the environment suit, beam over to the Cicero and see if you can find anything in the logs and computer that could help us.'

'Yes sir.'

Lieutenant Sia Singh was on board what remained of the Cicero's Bridge inside five minutes, he refrained from close examination of the broken bodies that littered the room, instead he concentrated on recovering as much data as he could coax from the badly damaged consoles.

The job done he returned rapidly to the Augustus.

The ship was speeding back to the Gaunt.

Ohlson was reviewing the logs. They had downloaded ten partials all were useless. But they had got one complete entry. It belonged to the captain. Everyone was on the Bridge. Marcus started the recording.

'Captain's log. Emergency entry, it's a trap,' Fessler's voice sounded strained and surprised, 'the Shoeman is refusing to acknowledge hails and has flown straight past two flights of Dominion assault ships and headed to the prison. We think they've signaled to them somehow.

We repelled that attack but have suffered casualties and damage.'

There was a pause.

'Another three ships have targeted us. We got one good sweep of the prison, at least that bit was true. Damaged their shield generators.

We also detected phaser fire inside the Shoeman, someone or something has taken control of that ship. The Gaunt is down, we found an ion trail leading to the Demon, I think they sought shielding in the atmosphere.

We still can't raise the Augustus... can only assume that they have fallen into the trap too.

God help us.

Prepare torpedoes.'

The log entry ended.

'It didn't even retain the communications they had with us.' Sia turned off the recording

'Well,' said Mc Sorley, 'at least it confirms that it was the Shoeman that acted as a Judas goat and led us into the trap.'

Ohlson sighed. 'Pity it doesn't add any light as to who did that leading.'

'Nothing in that to alter our plans? asked Mc Sorley.

'No, on the contrary. It would appear that the reason the prison has no shields is that the Cicero removed them. That will assist us in our task.' Ohlson fixed his jacket that did not need fixing. 'Right then here are the crew allocations, bear in mind that the Augustus is the flagship, Lieutenant Mc Sorley is taking the Caesar, Lieutenants Tambecki and d'Amatsu will be her back up crew. Your job will be to retrieve, and house the prisoners.

The Gaunt will be captained by Lieutenant Singh, he will have T'sella, and Colimo as his crew.

On the Augustus, Smith will be on ops, Barret has the conn, and Kausler is on tactical.'

He waited as each digested their roles. 'There is one more thing you should know. The recovered Dominion data have informed us that the Hawaii may be in one piece.

It is being hid on this planet, on the far side, well away from where our sensors on entering the system would have detected it. That seems to be one of the reasons why there are so many Jem'Hadar on the planet.

For the time being at least we will be ignoring the Hawaii. We have another job to do.' He turned to Mc Sorley. 'Okay Commander, what was the plan?'

She smiled. 'We tractor one of the hulls of the downed Jem'Hadar to outside the atmosphere, keeping as far below it as we can while maintaining contact. We get our scan from the Dominion craft's own sensor array, then we release it.

Even if it is detected they will only see a badly damaged ship, one of their own, heading to its death. They are aware that the planet interferes with communications, and they know they have lost ships here, if they see a wounded ship they will assume it was damaged and tried to gain escape velocity. When it crashes again they will not be unduly alarmed, even if they send some ships to investigate. If they detect our sensor scan they will assume it originates from their own people.'

Ohlson turned to T'sella. 'Can you adapt the Dominion sensors so they can do the scan and relay it to us without betraying our position?'

The Vulcan thought about it. 'Yes, we can hold the Jem'Hadar at a range of fifty meters, if we stay below the limit of the atmospheric disturbances and retreat before any investigating craft near us then we can do as the Commander suggests. We can even make the sensor sweep appear to be a failed attempt at opening a communications link.'

Ohlson nodded his approval. 'Good idea Ensign.

And Commander, I knew you'd do it.'

'Then you knew more then I did.'

He laughed. 'Lieutenant Smith, how are we doing for time?'

Alex Smith looked back at the chronometer on his console. 'We have another hour, and we'd still be within safety margins.'

'Good, then let's commence the reassignments to the other craft.'

The first to go was the new crew of the Gaunt.

They materialized on the Bridge.

'I will check Engineering, reroute the commands to the Tactical station. I will give you a report as soon as I can.' With that T'sella walked off the Bridge and towards the Engine room.

The Bolian strode purposively to the conn. He started tapping the console. The previous visitors had left the computer on-line, so he had little to do to verify that the ship was ready. 'Everything seems ready from here.'

Sia nodded. He took his seat in the captain's chair.

It felt odd that this was his first command, it felt like he was sitting in a deadman's chair. He put the thought out of his head. 'Hail the Augustus.'

Colimo did as he was instructed.

Ohlson's face appeared on the viewscreen. 'Captain Singh.'

Sia liked the sound of that, he also appreciated that Ohlson had no need to give him the title, other than a sign of respect. 'We are awaiting a report from Engineering, then we will be ready to follow you.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Contact me when you know more.'

The viewscreen blurred then changed to show the ubiquitous clouds that shrouded the planet.

'I have rerouted the transporters to the conn.' The blue-faced Bolian turned in his chair to look at the captain. 'I think we're ready.'

At that moment T'sella walked into the Bridge. 'Engineering controls have been rerouted to the Bridge.'

Sia tugged at his tunic. 'Notify the Augustus that we are ready.'

Colimo tapped his console, he waited a few seconds. 'Augustus is taking off.'

'Follow them, match their speed, and keep a kilometer behind them.'

'They have lifted off the surface, they are a kilometer behind us.' Barret made her report and thought about home.

The next stop was the site of the battle with the Dominion ships. There were not enough of them intact to salvage data or materials. The new fleet spent five minutes as they initially deposited a seismic charge alongside one of the derelicts.

That task completed, Ohlson gave the order to use the tractor beam on the most intact of the trio of wrecks. It was the one Sia and Mc Sorley had been investigating.

'Tractor beam on,' reported Ben.

The ship shuddered slightly as the forces pulling the wreck tugged at the Augustus itself. 'More power to the engines.'

Tambecki pushed the engines a little more and then both craft were airbourne and stable.

'Nice work Lieutenant, now take us to the Caesar.'

They arrived at the Caesar without incident.

'The Caesar is one kilometer ahead,' said Tambecki.

'Take us to two hundred meters off the Card...' he paused, 'the Caesar.'

The ship moved into a static holding position.

'We are two hundred meters off the port bow.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley, Lieutenants Tambecki and d'Amatsu, prepare for disembarking.

Lieutenant Smith take ops, Ensign Barret you have the conn.'

The officers shifted their positions. Ohlson noted that the crew was developing a team spirit. Mc Sorley smiled as Smith moved into her chair. He whispered a good luck to her. She nodded at him.

Barret was sitting nervously looking at the helm controls. 'Keep an eye on the power usage for the tractor beam, that'll be the first to tell you if you've a problem towing the Jem'Hadar ship.'

Barret nodded and glanced towards the control indicator.

Benko patted her shoulder. 'It's a piece of cake Ensign, you'll do fine.'

The younger of the women smiled nervously at the other. 'I hope so Lieutenant, if it isn't as well as not looking good on my record, it might mean a stay at a Dominion penal colony.'

Tambecki laughed. 'If you do, then I'll teach you poker, it'll help past the time.'

Barret smiled back.

Benko got serious. 'Just concentrate on the temperature.'

'What?'

'When I get nervous I just look up the temperature outside the ship.'

Barret looked quizzically at Tambecki.

'It takes my mind of whatever is making me nervy, and besides that I always wanted to be a meteorologist.'

'You did?'

She nodded. 'That was my first posting on Mars, Environmental Control Unit.' She shrugged. 'But it was not to last.

See you soon.' She walked to the side of the Bridge they were using as a focal point for the transporters.

'Good luck people.' Ohlson waited until the trio was in position. 'Beam them to the Caesar Lieutenant Smith.'

'Aye aye Captain.' He initialized the transportation. The hum of the procedure died. He checked his console. 'They are on board the Caesar.'

'They have beamed across the commander and the lieutenants.'

Sia looked at the two that made up his crew. He had a good team, a full crew complement it was not. But they were more than efficient, he wondered what the details of Ohlson's plan was. No doubt they would be informed in due course. 'Keep our position, and watch those sensors, this would not be the time to be interrupted by the Dominion patrols.'

Mc Sorley had gone straight into captain mode. 'Tambecki, check the helm, familiarize yourself with the controls.

d'Amatsu, when we get within transporter range of the penal colony you'll have to pull our folk out of there post haste, check that you are up to par with Cardassian transporters.'

'Aye aye, Lieutenant Commander,' responded d'Amatsu. He paused before continuing, then he added, 'aye, aye Captain.'

Mc Sorley said nothing, but she smiled.

Tambecki was smiling too. 'That means I'm either the first or the second officer, not bad, not bad at all.' She was seated and concentrating on the controls. They looked easy enough to manipulate, if basic. Ah well, she imagined old sea dogs from earth's more romantic sailing ship days would have considered the Caesar a rust bucket, still it was their rust bucket and it was Benko's job to navigate and move this rust bucket to where it was supposed to go. She tapped the console, the environmental controls blinked. She slapped the panel, the blinking stopped. The readouts indicated that all was well. 'We're ready at this end, Captain.'

Mc Sorley nodded and a lock of red hair slipped from its place behind her right ear. She fixed the errant strand and took her place behind Benko.

'Transporters ready.' d'Amatsu had positioned himself in the adjoining section to the Bridge.

'Open a link to the Augustus.'

Tambecki did as she had been asked. 'It's open.'

'Augustus, U.S.S. Caesar here, ready to depart on your instructions.'

On the Augustus, Ohlson listened as his first officer gave her report. 'Caesar, take up position three kilometers to the rear of the Gaunt, and stay in that formation until we get to one kilometer of the ionosphere, acknowledge then maintain radio silence until contacted.'

'Caesar acknowledges,' answered Mc Sorley.

'Gaunt acknowledges,' Sia was tugging at his tunic.

'Ensign Barret, take us to a position one kilometer below the ionosphere, half impulse.'

Hope Barret tapped the console, the engines hummed a little louder. She watched with great care as the indicators showed that the ship and its Dominion passenger rose gently until it was at the captain's declared velocity, then she watched the attitude controls, she was about to calculate the height where the ionosphere was. It was her first time piloting a starship, she had flow simulations, but the knowledge of the power that a tap of your fingertip can direct... She smiled. She could get to like this job.

'One three nine kilometers is the desired height,' said Smith from ops.

Barret nodded that she had received the information and then guided the Augustus to one hundred and thirty-nine kilometers above the surface of the planet. She tapped her console until she saw the whereabouts of the rest of the ragtag fleet, and then she calculated where the penal colony was to them. 'We are in position Captain.' She reckoned they were on the side of the planet facing the penal colony, they were on line with the planet's tropics. The supposed position of the Hawaii was only a thousand kilometers away, but this was as near to it as they would get.

She watched her console. 'So too are the others.'

'Do the sensors tell us anything of the penal colony?'

'No sir, we'd have to go out of the ionosphere to get anything.' Barret was eyeing the controls for any sign of Jem'Hadar.

'Open a communication link to the others.'

She did.

'The Augustus is moving fifty kilometers south of here and closer to the penal colony.' Ohlson was reading his own console. 'We will be rising above the interference and scanning from the Jem'Hadar, if we are detected, which is all but a certainty, they will come to us.

Once we have made our scan and returned to below the ionosphere we will jettison the Jem'Hadar derelict, and send the data we recover to both your vessels. Use it to formulate a route to the colony and attack.

Sia will spearhead the assault. The object is threefold; to transmit a priority one distress message to Starfleet; to destroy any defenses you may encounter at the prison; and allow the prisoners to be transported to the Caesar, which will have followed the Gaunt. But, Commander Mc Sorley you can take the initiative if the Gaunt is delayed and you see no resistance.' He paused. 'If you cannot retrieve the prisoners then make your escape to the coordinates given for the rendezvous with the Osprey.

I suggest at that point all survivors regroup on the Gaunt, but the final decision will be made by whoever is the ranking officer.' He tactfully left out the word 'surviving'.

'When we defeat the investigating ships then we will join you in the attack, and or the escape.

It is of the utmost importance that word is given to Starfleet that the Dominion have a large fleet in this region and they have a plan to use this sector. Make your transmission as soon as you clear the ionosphere.

Good luck,' he concluded.


	4. Chapter 4

'Check the weapons are on-line.'

Tambecki did so. 'Ready.'

'Transporters?'

'Ready,' answered d'Amatsu.

Mc Sorley tapped her own tricorder and composed a message. She handed the instrument to d'Amatsu. 'Transmit this as soon as we clear the interference.'

'Prepare to analyze the data burst, and ready on phasers.'

The crew of the Gaunt tensed as they waited developments. Sia had his transmission ready too.

The Augustus settled itself into the thin clouds that managed to swirl even at this altitude, then it sped off at full impulse to the equator.

It arrived some minutes later.

'Ready on phasers.' Kausler did not even need to be asked she was ready.

'Ready to initiate sensor sweep.' Smith had put everything into one command. All he had to do was give one tap on his console and the multitude of commands to the sensors would commence. He waited with his finger poised over the command key. 'The distress message is ready for use when we next emerge.'

'Then take us slowly Ensign and scan when you are able.'

Hope tapped the controls, the Jem'Hadar vessel rose quicker than she had expected. She compensated to slow it down. She nudged it ten meters above and in front of the Augustus. The ships rocked at the stresses that the maneuver was causing. Ohlson made no comment, something for which she was grateful. Satisfied that the delicate balancing act was as good as she could make it, she fed more power to the engines and both vessels rose. In the viewscreen they could see the silhouette of the enemy ship above them become more readily defined as the clouds thinned.

Then the clouds were gone and the stars filled the sky.

'Initiate sensors,' Ohlson was straining to see if the ruined Dominion ship did shield them. _We'll find out soon enough_, he thought.

The command was given and Smith's sensors came to life. The sensors on the wreck activated and pulsed some energy signals and gathered others, the resulting collection was fed rapidly back to the Augustus below. The computer started taking the data and analyzing the information for signs of ships and life. Smith read the results as quickly as he could.

'Anything Lieutenant?'

'Yes,' he sorted up the umpteen bits as they came to him. 'The prisoners are still on the station, the large warship is not within sensor range, but six Jem'Hadar assault craft are patrolling the space between us and the prisoners.'

'Have the detected us, or their colleague?'

'No,' he watched the readings as they tumbled from the screen. 'Amend that, they know we're here, or that someone is here. Three are coming in our direction.'

'Wait until they are close to weapon's range and then take us lower Ensign, don't give them time to get within range to scan the wreck for life signs. Lower us slowly, I want them to believe it's already badly damaged. And as soon as we're among the planetary interference again transmit the sensor information to the others.'

Hope Barret remembered that her mother had wanted her to be a lawyer. She shrugged away the thought and concentrated on the three enemy ships that were racing to confront them.

The screen showed the data that was visible from the vessel above them, as they looked through the eyes of the Dominion ship. Specks that were the enemy craft approaching rapidly.

'They will be within weapons' range in thirty seconds.' Barret watched the readouts carefully, she had no desire to make a mistake at this stage. Anyway, if she did it might be the last one she would ever make.

The ships were ten seconds away, she nudged the controls and the Augustus' nose dipped dragging the enemy carcass with them. They were in the clouds and the enemy's sight and sensors were obscured.

'They've fired, they know all is not what it seems.'

Barret's announcement came as Ohlson thought they had gotten away from the approaching danger, or at least far enough away so as not to be in imminent peril.

'Send the data to the Caesar and Gaunt, ready the phasers and torpedoes.'

Smith tapped the console. 'Data sent, and received.'

'Weapons ready.' The soft voice of Gretchen Kausler sounded incongruous amid the tension.

The disrupter blasts were of mixed accuracy. One thumped into the derelict and sent it veering to one side. Barret pulled it back as best she could. The other two hit the Augustus and one of them was completely absorbed by the forward shields. The last hit the Bridge.

The vessel rocked, and Smith's old station was showered with sparks as the console exploded.

'Forward shields at seventy percent, we've lost power to the port nacelle, I'm rerouting from the auxiliary batteries.' To himself Smith sounded like he hadn't a care in the world, but he had. He watched as the rerouting was finished and he opened the conduits. Would it work?

'Port nacelle is back on-line,' he breathed a sigh of relief.

'Can we see them through this fog?'

'I still have their coordinates and trajectory, but other than that…' Barret wasn't sure if that was what Ohlson wanted to hear. 'Should I keep hold of the derelict?'

Apparently the news wasn't enough to ruin his day. 'Fine, target phasers to the estimated position, and to an arc ten degrees to the port, fire four three second bursts and then fire three torpedoes ten degrees to their starboard.'

Kausler didn't question the order.

'As for the derelict, let's keep it close for a while longer.'

The phaser pulses left the Augustus and disappeared into the twisting clouds, seconds later the whoosh of the photon torpedoes broke the silence that had descended on the Bridge. They waited.

'Six Jem'Hadar between the prison, and three are heading to the Augustus.' Tambecki glanced to Mc Sorley. 'I don't think they bought the crippled Dominion ship ruse.'

The redhead was thinking. 'One wing stayed behind, we are no match for three fighters, probably no match for one.'

Sia had came to the same conclusion. 'We'll have to get out there and take some of the pressure from the captain, open a link to the Caesar.'

T'sella did as she had been ordered. The viewscreen showed Deborah Mc Sorley in the makeshift captain's chair on the Caesar.

'I'm moving towards the Augustus, and then we hope to draw the other three ships to us. If we succeed make a run to the prison, we'll be right behind you.'

'Agreed, good luck Sia.' The viewscreen returned to showing the ubiquitous atmospheric conditions of the Demon class planet.

'I really don't like that colour scheme,' mumbled the Indian.

'Take us to within ten kilometers of the Augustus' estimated position, can you get them on screen?'

Colimo tapped the console and the ship moved toward the scene of battle. Almost immediately the Bridge of the Augustus appeared on the screen. Even as the crew of the Gaunt watched the captain of the other ship was jarred to one side as a disrupter blast hit the ship.

'Captain,' Sia leant forward, as if that would help him speak over the sounds of battle, 'we're on our way, we'll assist with these three and then try to lure the rest in, with the three still near the prison the Caesar couldn't get within transporter range before being obliterated.'

Another blast rocked Ohlson. 'We will be looking forward to your presence Mister Singh.'

'Report Ensign Barret.'

'From what I can gather, there's only two out there, and one is not maneuvering as well as we know they can.'

'Good, said Ohlson, 'we'll chalk that up to the phasers and torpedoes.

Now how about getting me a shot at the others.'

'I'll do my best Captain, but the sensors are only useful to, almost pointblank range. It doesn't give us much time to act.'

'I take it,' said Smith, 'that what we are experiencing then is probing fire.'

'Gretchen, is there anything you would suggest for making the enemy's life as uncomfortable as they are making ours?'

'Well we can guess their position from the trajectory of the disrupters and the knowledge that they will be maintaining a set distance away from the planet. In essence they will keep level, and although they are moving, it is within strict parameters.'

'I'm right on it.' Smith had the computer download the last six phaser shots and their trajectories, then he computed the time intervals and the fact that it was two-dimensional space and not the usual three. Finally he asked where were the Jem'Hadar.'

'One is inside a circle of one kilometer in diameter to our right and one hundred meters above us. The other,' he smiled as he read the computer's predictions, 'it's fifty-five meters directly overhead, and is the crippled one.

It's slower and not making as many changes in its search pattern.'

Ohlson was smiling too. 'Have you ever heard of the Barret maneuver Ensign?'

'Eh, no sir.'

'That's probably because you are about to become the first person ever to execute it.

Stand us on our tail, reverse thrusters and drop a hundred meters, give a pulse to the tractor beam and throw the derelict three hundred meters above us and to the enemy's port side. Then fire a torpedo to explode at the altitude that the Jem'Hadar is supposed to be, and hit full impulse. Fly through what, we hope is the debris field and turn to where the second hunter is, with luck surprise will be on our side.'

Hope Barret waited as she digested the strategy.

'Did you get all that?'

'Yes sir,' she hoped to God that she had. The Barret maneuver, she liked the sound of that. Behind her Ohlson was still smiling.

She nudged the thrusters until the ship was at ninety degrees to the tangent of the planet, then she gently raised the power to reverse and watched the indicators as they showed the drop in altitude. It took some delicate engine control to maintain contact with the derelict they were dragging about like a dead dog on a lead, amid the inaccurate but nuisance fire from the two ships but she managed.

She scanned to ensure they were still perpendicular. They were. She stopped the engines. 'Ready on your command sir.'

Ohlson looked to Kausler.

She nodded. 'Ready with the weapons.'

'Dump the derelict.'

Hope sent an energy surge to the tractor beam and moved its center so that the push, when it came, thumped the ship upward and outward. She corrected for the motion in the Augustus that the move generated.

She watched the sensors. 'Its going a little more than four hundred meters off the targets estimated locales.'

'That should be enough Ensign,' responded Ohlson. 'Brace yourselves, fire one.' The whoosh of the photon was hardly gone when Ohlson spoke again. His voice was low and precise. 'Full impulse, take us to two hundred meters and then angle us towards the second Jem'Hadar. Go.'

The blast of the torpedo rocked the Augustus as it sped upwards and into the downward shook wave. Smith grasped his console to prevent himself from leaving his seat.

Barret concentrated on the readouts, she was scared to look at the viewscreen in case there was a large chunk of Jem'Hadar lying in front, at this speed and visibility it would be no point in trying to avoid any obstacles. They were out of the clouds, and the bumping stopped. She pushed the ship level and then checked the sensors. There it was.

'Fire phasers!'

Ohlson and Kausler had seen it too, probably before Barret had taken her eyes from her station.

Gretchen had fired two pulses of phaser in the direction of the enemy.

Barret had the Augustus heading directly towards the insect-like Dominion ship.

'It's turning towards us.' Smith watched the screen.

'Element of surprise is over with then,' Ohlson sounded calm.

Kausler had ceased firing. Barret wondered why, then the tactical officer had the range and the enemy ship was hit with two straight and true blasts.

'Their shields are collapsing,' Alex scanned the region of space that they had vacated.

Kausler fired again, and again, the Jem'Hadar was swaying as it attempted to compensate for the surprise assault.

The first blast hit the ship at where its Bridge was located, the second swept down its back. It started it spinning.

The Augustus was all but on top of it when it exploded.

'Shields are at twenty-two percent, there's a hull breech in Engineering.' Smith heard the sparks commence from his old console as another conduit was severed.

'Take us back to the planet,' Ohlson wanted them away before the remaining Jem'Hadar started towards them.

'We've lost weapons.' Kausler's neutral voice got an answering glance from the captain.

'Permanently?'

'No, I've started to reroute power to compensate from the damaged controls. That should be done in a few minutes.'

Smith took the slight pause in the action to send the subspace message to Starfleet, _or anyone who might be interested,_ thought the medic. 'Message sent.'

'I suggest that you hurry and get the phasers on-line.'

Ohlson looked at Barret. She was looking at the viewscreen.

Ohlson looked at where she was staring. The viewscreen changed as they dived into the clouds. Marcus Ohlson had seen little before that. 'Why Ensign?'

'The remaining three ships are closing rapidly on our position. They have powered their weapons.' She looked at him. 'They should get to our last position in twenty seconds, give or take a couple.'

'Just for the record,' Smith tapped his console for more information from the sensor scans that they had done while free from the planet's ionized atmosphere. 'One enemy ship was destroyed by the photon torpedo, and of the one that didn't reach us, it, by the readings I have, suffered a plasma leak and that ignited. I have no idea of which weapon did the deed.'

'Anything new on the penal colony?'

Smith shrugged. 'Apart from the Shoeman, it's unguarded, if that's any good to you.'

'Not me, but Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley might find it interesting, tell her.'

Smith opened the link with the Caesar.

'Glad to see you're still in one piece.' The ex-first officer of the Augustus looked worried at seeing the traces of combat that were visible in the view of the Bridge.

'No time to talk, we've a few visitors arriving at any second. The way to the prison is clear, good luck.'

The screen went back to the clouds.

That was when the disrupter blasts hit the Augustus' rear shields.

'They aren't certain of our whereabouts,' Barret clung to her console as another salvo swept the region.

'Where is it? asked Ohlson. 'Our whereabouts?'

Barret looked at Smith.

'Impossible to tell,' he glanced at his sensors. They were inoperable in the atmosphere.

Another blast sent the crew rocking.

'Let's get out of this pea soup, bring us to half a kilometer from the end of the interference.' Sia was scanning the viewscreen. He did not like flying in these conditions, he'd rather have it that his enemy were visible and waiting for him, rather than this blindness.

Colimo tipped the navigation controls and the Gaunt parted company with the Demon class planet. The clouds vanished as if by magic and stars filled the viewscreen.

He tapped the console beside the captain's chair and the message was transmitted. He turned his attention back to the present dangers. 'Status?'

T'sella was scanning their immediate environment even before Sia had asked. 'Four Jem'Hadar, one badly damaged seems dead in space between here and the penal colony, another is firing apparently at random into the clouds, the other two are making directly for the Caesar which is heading towards the prison.'

'Take a run past the one firing at the clouds, aim phasers all around it, try to distract it and let the Augustus get out from under. Then full impulse to the Caesar.'

Colimo had laid in the instructions, T'sella waited at the weapons.

'We can't take this punishment for ever, they may actually hit something important.' Ohlson sighed. 'Take us up, and ready on phasers.'

The Gaunt cleared the clouds first. Two ships were five kilometers off their starboard side, they were facing away from them.

Colimo had the ship turned and baring down on the enemy with phasers blazing before them had even commenced to break formation and regroup.

The phaser fire hit one causing the shields to flare in protest.

Then the Augustus arrived. It came from below and behind the now turning Dominion ships. The first three pulses were accurate and deadly, the explosion filled the viewscreens.

'Its aft shields have failed,' T'sella had followed the Augustus' assault, he how took advantage as the ship sped past them. He sent a long and powerful phaser pulse into the main body of the ship, it was only a few microseconds before the shot had penetrated what remained of the lateral shields.

They were past the burning debris and turning towards the last position of the Caesar.

Behind them the Augustus blasted the last Jem'Hadar vessel that remained, it flared before tumbling into the clouds of the Demon planet.

Barret was analyzing the data they were collecting, the Augustus was almost alongside the Gaunt as they headed to assist Lieutenant Commander Mc Sorley.

Mc Sorley watched as the computer verified that the emergency signal had been transmitted.

'They are gaining.' Benko was scanning the pursuing ships.

'We won't be able to outrun them.'

Mc Sorley looked at d'Amatsu. 'Have you an idea you would like to share with us Lieutenant?'

The junior lieutenant was grinning. 'Sir,' he said, 'there was something Lieutenant Singh and I were working on.'

'Go on.'

'Interception in thirty seconds.' Hope Barret was aiming directly in front of the Caesar, hoping to catch up before the enemy did.

'There's a message coming in from the Caesar,' Smith waited.

'On screen.'

Deborah Mc Sorley appeared. 'We're trying Sia's idea, be ready.'

The screen returned to showing stars and the ships that were involved in the deadly chase.

'What was Sia's idea?' asked Smith wondering had he missed something that had been said at one of the briefings.

'I have no idea, so we'd better be ready for... whatever it is they intend to do.'

On the Gaunt they had a better idea of what the Caesar had planned.

'Brace for impact! Ready on phasers!'

The pursuing Dominion ships neared weapons' range, they powered their weapons array and aimed.

'Energize.'

d'Amatsu did as Mc Sorley ordered. 'Transportation complete.'

'Something has materialized between the Caesar and the Jem'Hadar,' Barret scanned the incoming data for clues to what was happening. 'It's big, whatever it...'

Ohlson had realized what was being done. 'Brace for impact!'

'Fire one!'

d'Amatsu fired.

The small charge that had been secreted on the borrowed nacelle that was how floating in space ignited.

A cloud of plasma rushed from the many fractures that the bomb had created.

The Jem'Hadar ships quickened and veered to either side of the obstacle.

'Fire two!'

d'Amatsu fired again.

The proton torpedo sealed at the tip of the broken nacelle detonated, as did the other four concealed within, all had been Jem'Hadar and unusable by the Caesar in any other capacity. But each was powerful enough, if well enough aimed, to incapacitate a Galaxy class starship.

The plasma ignited and the mass of roaring matter hurdled away from the Caesar and towards the oncoming ships.

Both Jem'Hadar vessels were hit. One shuddered as the searing plasma engulfed its frame. The other spun as one of its own nacelles separated from the fuselage of the main ship.

Sia Singh's ship weathered the shook wave better than the Augustus did.

'Forward shields at fifty percent.'

'Fire when you're within range, don't give them time to recover.'

They reached the stricken ship first. T'sella aimed the phasers at the main body and watched as they ploughed into the vessel.

The explosion seemed small compared to the one that had preceded it.

Colimo's voice interrupted Sia's meditation. 'The Augustus has reached the other ship.'

'Put it on the viewer.'

The battle at the other ship was longer, but not by much. The Augustus fired first, the Jem'Hadar turned and retaliated, then two torpedoes from the Starfleet vessel ended the matter.

'Incoming message from the Augustus.'

'Put her on.'

Ohlson's face appeared. 'I liked the idea Lieutenant, but if you get any more would you so kind as to share them before we meet them.'

'I'll make a point of that,' he smiled, the banter was a good sign that damage was minimal. 'What's your status?'

'Shields are holding, just about, and some of the systems are running via auxiliary power units.

But other then that... How about the Gaunt?'

'Shields at optimal, weapons in readiness, and no discernible damage to report.'

Ohlson nodded. 'Then let's go help Captain Mc Sorley before she leaves the star system without us.'

Deborah Mc Sorley was nearing the penal colony as the other ships exchanged reports. 'Run a sensor sweep of the entire vicinity. I want to know where everyone is and who they are, isolate the Jem'Hadar, Vorta, and the bridge crew of the Shoeman if you can.'

d'Amatsu refrained from questioning the instruction especially the section on the Shoeman's bridge crew. He punched the relative commands into the console and waited.

'We've got two hundred and forty eight separate life signs, one hundred and nine human, thirty-four Betazed, ten Trill, seven Bolian, fifteen Vulcan, thirteen mixed race Federation personnel, fifty-one Jem'Hadar, and nine Vorta.

The establishment is built as a main block comprising a hub with three wings linked to a corridor projecting from a small indent on one side, at this end is a tall pylon... its the docking bays.

The mass of the Federation personnel are housed in the three large sections of the prison, the Jem'Hadar and Vorta are spread throughout the facility, and exclusive to the hub and corridors.'

'Any defense systems, batteries or mines?'

d'Amatsu scanned the mass of data that he had collected. 'None operational, I've finding some scattered and destroyed field generators, and one gun emplacement, also destroyed, only regular force field barriers against the environment. It looks like all they had was the fighters to hold off any intruders.'

'What of the Shoeman?'

'It's on a launch pad, seven on board, two human, four Jem'Hadar and a Vorta.'

Mc Sorley pondered on her next course of action. 'Can you identify individuals?'

d'Amatsu did not hesitate in responding. 'We could if we had the individual patterns available, but we haven't, so no.'

'Okay then, bring us to transporter range.'

Tambecki was already aiming the vessel in that direction.

The two other ships in the small fleet were only a few seconds behind the Caesar. They positioned themselves on either side as they neared the prison.

'No,' said Barret, 'they have no anti spacecraft defenses.'

'Keep an eye on the Demon class and the long-range scanners,' to himself he muttered, 'I wonder where the battleship is?'

Barret had been wondering the same. She glanced at the scanners. There was nothing untoward to report... yet.

Sia Singh had ordered T'sella to watch for the twin threats that they all were hoping would not materialize; the still patrolling Jem'Hadar vessels on the planet; and the large unaccounted for battleship. He was thinking that they could possibly get back to the relative safety of the planet's ionosphere if they caught sight of the battleship's approach, but what could they do if another couple of attack flights come at them from the planet? He sighed and brought his attention back to the Caesar's rendezvous with the prison.

'Something's up.' Colimo was watching the viewscreen, it showed the prison.

'What?' Sia was scanning the picture.

'The Shoeman,' answered T'sella, 'it's powering up its engines.. It has raised shields.'

Ohlson had seen it too. 'Hail them.'

Barret did as requested. 'No response.'

'We have no choice, reduce their shields and target their engines and weapons.'

Kausler didn't hesitate. 'Targeted.'

'Fire!'

On the screen the Shoeman was reversing out of the docking bay, it hovered several meters off the ground. Then a phaser blast struck the ship. It rocked heavily.

'Again.'

Gretchen fired another pulse at the target below them. It hit the main body of the ship.

'There shields are at fifty percent.'

'Fire!'

Another blast slammed into the Shoeman.

'Twenty-five percent.'

'Target the generator.'

'That did it they've lost shields.'

'Now get their weapons and engines.'

Kausler did as she had been ordered. More phaser fire buffeted the Shoeman.

'It's lost engines. But the weapons' array is still operational.'

'Keep firing until it's disabled.'

Kausler did as she had been told.

The Shoeman veered as it cleared the spatial limitations of the prison's docking pylon. Two further shots from the Augustus crashed into the ship.

'Weapons down and its returning to the docking bay.'

'Will they have transporters?'

'No, the power readings that we are detecting wouldn't be enough to let them.' Smith was still analysing the readouts as he finished speaking.

Ohlson smiled. 'Good.'

'Incoming message from the... Shoeman.' Barret failed miserably to suppress her surprise.

'On screen Ensign.'

The view of the three long wings with the central pylon and platform vanished to be replaced at the face of Captain Soo Han Lu. 'Commander Ohlson, cease firing at once and stand down. That is a direct order.'

'He's telling them to stand down.' The Bolian sounded surprised but not too surprised.

_Maybe it's me, I'm the one who's surprised,_ thought Sia. They had picked up the transmission from the Shoeman too. _I wonder what he'll do_. He didn't have long to wait to find out what Marcus Ohlson would do.

'No, Captain Lu, you stand down and prepare to be boarded.'

_Well I don't have to speculate any more_, Sia smiled. His first command and it was destined to end in a court-martial. _Ah well, worse could happen_.

And it did.

Lu remained stony-faced, then turned to someone off-screen. 'Put we through to Captain Shay.

_He doesn't know_, thought Ohlson. Then the viewscreen went back to showing the prison.

'Commander Mc Sorley is hailing us.'

'Put her on.'

'Marcus, what now?'

He cut off any further discussion. 'Ignore the Shoeman as anything other than a potential threat Deborah, proceed with the transportations from the prison.

Remember what we discussed, trust no one, especially officers.'

She nodded. 'Okay Captain, we'll start now.'

She turned to Benko and d'Amatsu. 'If anyone else starts throwing court-martials around I'm the one who's ordering you to do what comes next. Commence transporting the Starfleet personnel to the main body of the Caesar, once inside erect a level two force field and keep them in that until further instructions are given.'

Both the others nodded. d'Amatsu smiled. 'To think I thought engineering was where all the excitement was.'

He started programming the transportation console, then he initialized the force field in the bottom two thirds of the main body of the old tanker. Satisfied he had done everything in order, he then pinpointed and started to beam the non-Dominion personnel on board.

'Where is Captain Shay, and who are you?'

'Dead, and Lieutenant Sia Singh.'

'What are you doing on the Gaunt Lieutenant?'

'I'm the new captain, Captain Lu.'

The news did not seem to please the mission commander. 'Then I'm telling you what I told Commander Ohlson. Stand down, this is a direct order.'

Sia paused before continuing. 'Commander Ohlson is the new mission commander, I take my orders from him and he has not ordered me to stand down.' He turned to Colimo. 'End transmission.'

The screen showed the relatively less threatening picture of a Dominion prison camp.

'Well,' said the Bolian, 'I'd doubt anyone ever spoke quite like that to him before.'

'They've commenced the beam outs, four so far.'

Ohlson was thinking.

'Do I target the Shoeman?' Kausler sounded neither alarmed nor elated at that prospect.

'Keep an eye on their status, if they make any threatening moves then stop them, use as little force as you can to do so.'

'Sir,' Barret still looked at the console, 'what do we do with Captain Lu and the others still on board the Shoeman.' She paused. 'Do we take them with us?'

Ohlson had been wondering the very same question.

'Eighteen, ' reported d'Amatsu, 'and they are trying to hail us.'

'Do they still have their communications badges?' Mc Sorley looked surprised.

'No,' he nodded to the door, 'I can hear them shouting.'

Mc Sorley sighed. She rose from the captain's chair, and walked to the door. 'Ben you have the Bridge, I'll be back soon.' The door opened with a whoosh and then closed behind her.

'Sensors report blast fire in the prison. It's Dominion disruptors.'

'Whereabouts is it from?'

Smith was scanning for the data. 'It's coming from three different sites, I think they know we're taking the prisoners back and they're shooting them first.'

Ohlson bit his bottom lip, then he had an idea. 'Put Sia on screen.'

Ohlson's face filled the viewscreen. 'Use the Gaunt's transporters and lock on to the Jem'Hadar, transport them to the Shoeman.'

'We can only take two at a time.'

'That'll have to do. We'll take the two humans off the ship. We can't hope to get any more of our own people out of the line of fire but we can disrupt the enemy.'

'Are you sure about sending them to the Shoeman?'

A pause. 'No.'

'We're beaming Captain Lu and whoever the second human is on the Shoeman to us?'

'Yes Ensign, Lieutenant Smith bring them straight to the bridge. On my mark. Mark!'

Alex Smith only took a few seconds to pinpoint the two human life signs on the U.S.S Shoeman, then he locked on to them and on Ohlson's command beamed them on to the Bridge. He glanced around and his mouth dropped as he saw Ohlson standing holding his phaser.

Two lines of materializing bodies appeared to the left of the captain, then they solidified. One was the redoubtable, and not happy looking figure of Captain Lu, the other was an ensign in the blue of a science officer. She looked like she wasn't certain what was happening.

Lu started to speak but Ohlson was firing.

A pulse from the gun hit both arrivals square in the chest. They fell.

Marcus Ohlson turned to face the others. 'They're stunned, I don't know enough yet to actually kill them.'

Barret nodded, then wondered if she was in shook.

'I think you did right sir, for what it's worth.'

'Gaunt is hailing us.'

'On screen.'

Sia looked happy to see Ohlson still standing. 'We detected phaser fire.'

'Captain Lu and an as yet unidentified ensign have been rendered unconscious Lieutenant Singh.

We'll have to place them in a secure place before they regain their senses.'

The news didn't seem to bother the Indian that his present commanding officer had just shot his previous one. 'We'll get back to transporting the Dominion troops to the Shoeman, over.' The screen returned to showing the moon.

'Now, to put these two somewhere safe.' Ohlson started to tap out instructions to the computer.

'I demand to be released.'

Mc Sorley scratched her head. 'For the last time Lieutenant, no, you are to remain here until further notice.'

The lieutenant bristled. 'Who the hell do you think you are, and where have you received the authority to detain us like this?'

Deborah decided not to waste any more time with the woman. She stepped away from the force field and raised her hands. 'Quiet please!'

Those that had arrived, and the others who materialized looked at the woman. All seemed very confused and disoriented.

'Thank you. You will all be wondering what has happened. My name is Lieutenant Commander Deborah Mc Sorley, of the...' she paused then smiled, 'U.S.S Caesar, a newly commissioned transport ship.

We are part of the retrieval mission to rescue Starfleet personnel held on the prison below.

You will have to remain behind the force field until further notice, and then I will be back to get your personal details.

As it is we are doing things as fast as we can,' a couple of the twenty-eight people present started to speak. 'Please, be patient, we are still in a war zone, so forgive me, but I'm required on the Bridge.' With that she turned and strode back to the command section.

Two officers and an ensign started to shout after her, she ignored them.

One ensign, dirty and tired looking turned to a lieutenant beside her. 'The U.S.S. Caesar, I've never heard of that ship.'

The lieutenant was looking at the ribbed inner surface of the converted Cardassian tanker. 'No, neither have I, and this architecture, seems that Starfleet design has became very radical in the last few weeks.'

'How many?' Mc Sorley sat down with a sigh.

'Forty-eight... fifty.'

It seemed such a long way to one hundred and forty eight.

'They are making good progress, over fifty on board so far,' Smith tapped the console again. 'They are taking them up one wing at a time.'

'What of the Dominion and casualties?'

'We lost twelve, and all but ten of the Jem'Hadar have been vacated.'

'Must be getting very cramped on the Shoeman,' pointed out Barret.

'Talking of which,' added Smith, 'it is docked and they are opening the inner doors to the prison again.'

'How long will it take them to get to the main building?'

'Minutes.'

'Keep an eye on them, send them back if they get close.'

'That's all them from that wing,' Colimo switched the sensors to the next wing and commenced his search for the remaining Dominion troops. He found one, locked on and then the soldier was on board the Shoeman.

'Eighty-eight.'

'Captain Mc Sorley,' Ben's voice sounded terse.

'What is it Ben?'

'I think you'd better see this.'

Mc Sorley was out of her seat and over to the console as quickly as she was able.

Benko pointed to the readout.

'Get me the Augustus.'

'They've started a self-destruct device.'

Ohlson met the news with some concern. 'How long until it detonates, and how many have you got off the prison?'

d'Amatsu answered from out of Ohlson's right. 'One minute and fourteen seconds, and one hundred and two.' He looked at the information he had coming into his station then added. 'They've killed twenty-one so far, so that's another twenty-five... make that twenty-three, to go.'

Ohlson rubbed his hair. 'Let me know when you have them, out.'

'I thought he'd tell us to get away as soon as we'd finished,' said Tambecki.

_So did I_, thought Mc Sorley, _so did I_.

'Can we stop or disrupt the countdown?'

'Hmm, maybe.'

Ohlson turned to Smith angrily. 'I don't need confusion Lieutenant, I want answers.'

Smith felt a blush rise then pulled his mind back to Ohlson's questions. 'Sorry sir, yes I think it can be disrupted.'

'How?'

'According to the sensors the device or at least the mechanism of the countdown clock we've detected, is sited at the hub of the establishment. It appears to be the Dominion section, one torpedo would destroy that part and cause only superficial damage to the rest. Bulkheads separate them so depressurization won't come into it.'

Ohlson cut to the chase. 'Will that stop the countdown without detonating the explosives?'

'If it were Starfleet, yes, explode the torpedo underground and depend on the shockwave to destroy the device. It will stop the countdown it's all probability about whether or not it neutralizes the bomb.'

'Great,' Ohlson turned away from his crew, 'then it'll have to be the last resort.

How many are left down there?'

A pause as Smith checked. 'Eleven, and there's a minute to go.'

'The Augustus is hailing us,' Colimo had been doing his own calculations moments before for Singh. 'We'll have approximately thirty seconds to get clear by the time they've emptied the prison.'

'On screen.'

Ohlson appeared. 'Move to a safe distance Sia, we'll continue to shift Dominion personnel until Mc Sorley's ready. See you soon.'

The screen returned to showing the prison. 'Okay Colimo get us to three thousand kilometers off the moon.'

'Aye aye Captain.'

Seconds later the Gaunt was hurdling away from the imminent explosion.

d'Amatsu gave a curse. 'They're still killing any they can find.

That's our lot.' He glanced up at Mc Sorley. 'We could only get one hundred and eighteen.'

Mc Sorley tried and failed to avoid thinking of the thirty, no it would be more than that if the crew of the Shoeman were included, all dead. She pushed the thoughts as far away as she could. 'Put the Augustus on screen.'

'Move out as fast as you can.'

Mc Sorley needed nothing else. 'Full speed Lieutenant get us out of here.'

The Caesar turned slowly and then its thrusters engaged. It accelerated away from the moon and towards the distant speck on the viewscreen that was the U.S.S Gaunt.

'We've made it, and with thirty-eight seconds to spare.' Smith tried not to sound elated at getting away from the booby-trapped moon.

'Sir, we have a problem.' Barret sounded anxious.

Ohlson looked to the ensign. 'Problem?'

The Gaunt had seen it too.

'It'll intercept us in less than six minutes.' Colimo was staring at the viewscreen, which was at full magnification. Dead center of the picture was the Dominion battleship. Seconds earlier Colimo had spied the vessel as it came within sensor range. It had been in the nebula that was the escape route of the three Starfleet ships. They were heading directly towards it.

'It gets worse.' d'Amatsu had just relayed the new sensor information to Mc Sorley.

'Worse? How could it get worse?'

'There are six Jem'Hadar fighters leaving the atmosphere of the Demon class. They are heading our way too.'

'I had to ask.

Ready on weapons.' _This should be one of the shortest battles in space history,_ she thought. _Three rust buckets, damaged rust buckets at that, against six fighters and a battleship. Oh boy!_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

'Reverse course, full speed back to the moon.'

Barret didn't try to comprehend her captain's orders, she just did as she had been told. The Augustus swung in a tight arc and rushed back to the prison.

'Tell the others to follow.'

'Where?' asked Sia Singh.

'The prison.' Colimo tried to sound neutral and unconcerned, but he thought he probably failed.

'Do it then.'

Tambecki did. The Caesar made a turn that was awkward compared to that taken by the Augustus but they were heading away from the battleship. _And towards a bomb_, thought Mc Sorley,_ I hope Marcus has a plan._

'Target the hub of the building, one torpedo, as soon as you can. Explode it underground.' Ohlson sat down. There was nothing to do now but wait, and count on Yeoman Kausler's skill.

Gretchen Kausler was doing what she was best at.

'Twenty seconds to ignition.' d'Amatsu wondered to whom he was bothering to pass on the news. The others were staring at the viewscreen, which showed a moon getting closer and the two ships in front of them.

Silence reigned on the Augustus.

Ohlson fidgeted, Kausler was working, and he did not want to say anything. He kept reminding himself of the woman's exemplary record. She'll do it right; he hoped.

Smith watched the moon. He didn't need his console to tell him that when the bomb exploded they were already within range of being damaged or destroyed. He licked his lips.

Hope Barret said a silent prayer and maintained course.

Gretchen tapped her console. They felt the slight tremor that occurred each time that a torpedo was launched. 'It's fired sir.' She didn't even have a bead of sweat on her forehead.

'Fifteen seconds... the Augustus has fired a torpedo.'

_That's his plan?_ Mc Sorley took a deep breath.

'Thirteen seconds to go.'

Sia considered telling T'sella to quit with the countdown. Then thought what the heck, it would probably take him as long to give the order as it would to implement.

'Ten...'

The torpedo struck the center of the hub of the three-winged barrack complex with eight seconds to go. The device ploughed through the building's superstructure and twenty-five meters into the moon on which it was built.

With seven seconds to go the torpedo ignited. It vaporized its immediate surroundings and caused a large section of the hub to explode outwards.

The hub's roof either vaporized or twisted, the section adjoining the rest of the complex protested the violence and sent ripples throughout the building. Debris, rubble and dust filled the interior of the surviving edifice. Emergency bulkheads closed as the compromised environmental controls sought to return to their previous status.

The explosion ripped the housing of the self-destruct device to shreds, severing detonator from bomb.

The device was dead.

Eight of the fifty-one Jem'Hadar and one of the ten surviving Vorta perished in the explosion.

'What now Captain?' asked Barret.

Ohlson stood as the ship closed in on the prison. He ran his hand through his hair. 'Bring us into the docking bay. Put the Caesar on screen, patch the signal in audio to the Gaunt.'

Hope Barret wondered what it would have been like to be a lawyer. The word 'safer' sprung to mind.

'We'll dock first and establish a bridgehead, then the Caesar can follow us in. Try to find someone from the Hawaii to act as guide. It's just possible someone on the Caesar knows the layout of the prison. But be wary of trusting anyone from the Shoeman or any other crew that may have been located there.

Collect as much weaponry and items of use that you can find, include spare combadges, there will be a small collection in the captain's quarters of the Gaunt. Then make a strong point; we may have to withstand a siege. Use the shields from the ship to link with ours and then the Gaunt's. That may prevent us being destroyed by a quick salvo of torpedoes, and should act against their sensors.

Sia will act as rearguard, until we are in some sort of order then he can bring his ship down too.

The Shoeman is on the bottom of the six docking bays, we'll take the next from the base then the Caesar, then you Sia.'

Deborah Mc Sorley was digesting the plan.

'It's the best we have to offer short of surrendering. Remember to lock out the controls excepting from your own voice, we may have use of the ships again. I know you haven't got the captain's command codes Sia, but do you're best to keep us in control of the Gaunt's functions.' Ohlson was watching the redhead in the viewscreen, she seemed about to ask a question.

She didn't ask whatever had been on her mind. 'Okay Captain, we'll be right behind you. Let's hope my next command is of a longer duration.'

Sia Singh took the news with a sigh. He had already worked out that Ohlson intended to hold up at the prison and await reinforcements, or... _Or what,_ thought the Indian, _another prison for all of them?_

'They will be here in five minutes.' Colimo glanced up from his console to the ominous figure in the viewscreen. The sleek dark battleship of the Dominion, he tried to remember had he heard of anything, even a Galaxy class destroying one, he couldn't,

'Keep position. Maintain weapons' readiness.' He settled into the captain's chair and waited.

'Where are the Jem'Hadar in the prison, and give me a quick rundown on the geography?'

Smith had been working on mapping the interior of the building as well as isolating the current inhabitants.

'The prison is basically two buildings connected by the semi-circular hub, the hub is gone, the other section is the base of the docking pylon, it would appear to be a reception area that leads to a corridor and the three wings. The Jem'Hadar are on all wings. Apart from the docking ring there were five emergency airlock entrances on the ground floor of the complex, they're small, one- and two-men, and sited at the end of each block, the hub, and the bottom of the pylon. The hub exit is no longer there the rest would appear to be fully operational.

Each of the three wings did contain prisoners, and all about equal in numbers, but there does appear to be a functionality difference for some of the wing. As we look at it, the docking pylon is alongside the main dormitory block, eighteen Jem'Hadar and two Vorta are there. The middle block, probably storage and kitchen going by the readings I have, eleven Jem'Hadar and three Vorta, the furthest block I have no idea of what its function is, contains ten Jem'Hadar and one Vorta, the rest - eight Jem'Hadar and three Vorta are still on or around the Shoeman.'

_That means the bulk of their forces are near were we'd be docking_, thought the captain. 'Okay Lieutenant Smith collect the environment suits and as much weaponry and medical kits as you can find, leave them by the door. There are ten combadges in my desk fetch them too.'

Smith rose from his console and headed to search the ship.

Deborah Mc Sorley was back at the force field talking to the escapees. 'We have had to retreat back to the prison, we've sent Starfleet a distress message and we have weapons.

Is Commodore Nilis and Captain Devereaux here?'

'We are.' The speaker was out of sight but those nearest Deborah parted to reveal a small balding man in the red uniform of command. 'I am Captain John Devereaux.'

'And I am Commodore Veton Nilis.'

Nilis emerged from the throng, she was tall, even for a Vulcan, and Deborah had the urge to take a step back to speak to her.

'Who are you and what is happening?'

'Long story sirs, at the minute we're being pursued by a battleship and six fighters, so we're heading back to the prison to await... developments.'

'Drop the force field Commander.'

'Sorry sir, can't do that until we are better organized.' She hoped that the 'visiting brass' did not wish to flex muscles. _They must know that she was in charge, as long as the force field was up anyway._

Devereaux's mouth made a turn as he thought about what he should do. Then he decided. He turned to Nilis. 'Commodore, is it okay if I start to form my crew into units to assist in this resistance? Notify me as soon as we dock.'

'That would be an appropriate response Captain, go ahead.'

'Commander we can give your team only a limited assistance in the prison if we have no weapons and communications.'

Mc Sorley nodded. 'We have some combadges and a few weapons, very few weapons I'm afraid. We will distribute them once we dock.'

'Won't docking at the prison be expected to be resisted from the occupants?'

'We have inflicted some damage and a lot of confusion among the troops stationed there. It should give us some advantage.'

Nilis looked like she was digesting that news. 'Then we must proceed as quickly as possible.'

Devereaux turned and started barking out instructions, gone were the murmuring complainers and arguers that had confronted Mc Sorley. In their place men and women started milling about and searching for others as they formed themselves into units. Devereaux was telling them to assemble with the section they had served with while on the ship.

'Have you any of the crew of the Shoeman?'

Nilis showed no emotion. 'No Commander, all here were on board the U.S.S. Hawaii.

Perhaps, seeing as the crew is being organized it would also be appropriate if the force field was dropped at this stage.'

Mc Sorley looked at the Vulcan. 'Yes sir.'

'Then you might tell me what happened to have you seeking sanctuary in the prison you have just liberated us from.'

'Computer, maintain shields as instructed and initiate lockout of all personnel, this is Commander Marcus Ohlson gamma gamma zero three nine theta.'

Immediately the lights on all the consoles died, then the viewscreen went blank.

The Augustus had successfully docked at the lowest free spot of the pylon, the crew stood at the exit ramp.

'There is a breathable atmosphere and temperature, the environmental controls must not have been damaged in the fighting.' Smith was beside the hatch holding a phaser.

'If we have been lucky enough to destroy their communications with the torpedo we'll probably have the element of surprise. I'd doubt they would be expecting us back so soon.' Hope Barret lifted the rucksack on to her shoulders, it contained communication devices, medical kits and tricorders. The phaser rifle she held was heavier than she imagined from basic training.

The hatch opened. Ohlson led the four on to the docking pylon of the prison. His phaser rifle turned to cover the corridor.

Benko Tambecki maneuvered the long ship to the nearest dock above the Augustus. 'We're there, docking clamps have engaged.'

'I hope that's an automatic response,' murmured d'Amatsu.

Alongside the engineer was Commodore Nilis. 'Yes, the docking pylon was built before the current establishment became militarized. Landings and take-off are fully independent functions of this section of the station.'

Mc Sorley was wondering should she add something when Ben spoke again.

'Commander Ohlson is communicating with us,' she tapped her console, 'it's from his combadge.'

'Put him on.'

Ohlson rounded the airlock corridor. He knew this was the weak point in the landing, if the enemy held here then no one would be disembarking, and that would mean no one was preparing for an attack. They had also lost an advantage when they shut the ships off. They now had no access to the sensor array, and only limited use of the ship's proximity alarms.

The tricorders were next to useless in the building, they weren't powerful enough. The metallic alloys that comprised the walls and floors were making readings of life signs and anything over ten meters away as unreliable - they were in effect blind. Unless what force was left of the garrison inside the building had access to a high-powered system of sensors, then they were blind too. _This,_ he thought, _would not be the time to start worrying whether or not the battleship had direct communications with the ground troops._

It was deserted. From the small three by three meters room that served as first defense against atmospheric leaks, they emerged into a larger room with two lifts facing the airlocks. At each end of this room were large windows that overlooked the prison complex. Ohlson made for the nearest.

The view was breathtaking, the outside was dark, shadows cascaded over shale and basalt canyons that outlined the gray buildings.

He was looking away from the prison; he glanced up and saw the long tubular figure of the Caesar making its descent. 'Come on,' he turned back to the others, 'we need to secure the base of this structure before the rest arrive.'

He led Barret, Kausler and Smith into the nearest lift. There were no stairs. They entered.

'Ground floor.'

Nothing happened.

Ohlson repeated the instruction.

Hope scanned the interior of the lift; it was not like the standard lift used by Starfleet on its bases and ships. It had a panel on the wall adjacent to the closed door.

'Computer...' started the commander.

'Wait a minute sir, I think I know what's wrong.' Hope walked to the panel and tapped the lower of the many coloured sections.

There was a hum and the lift commenced to move. _Down, I hope_, thought Barret_, or I may have inadvertently lost us the campaign before we've even encountered the enemy._

It went down.

'Thank you Ensign.' Ohlson's weapon pointed directly ahead.

Kausler leveled her phaser rifle at the doors.

The lift stopped moving.

The doors whished apart, the trio all had their rifles trained to meet any potential threat. There was none.

Ohlson was out first, the doors had opened into a larger room, and this one had no windows but two large corridors going off at ninety degrees to the lifts.

This was the large open-planned reception area. It was dimly lit in the immediate vicinity from still activated consoles sited on pillars around the large hall-like structure. Further along the hall and the darkness ruled.

There was a slight hint of dust motes in the air.

The hall had a dual row of six pillars running down its length.

If memory served him right, the left side of the hall went only a short distance, but the right one went straight up to a large corridor that would lead into the prison and then the hub. It was obvious that although they had done great damage to the hub - enough to knock out a protected system - they had not done enough to compromise the environment controls. The air was fresh and clean. The dust was the only clue to there having been a major explosion in the vicinity.

He took up a position facing the section of the corridor leading to the bulk of the complex. 'Okay Smith, where's the Shoeman, and the rest of the garrison to where we are?'

The Shoeman was in the docking alcove directly above where we are now. There was no sizable troop concentration here after they managed to get out of the ship. They moved that way,' he indicated their right, 'seemed to converge in the next block. Last scans reported eleven above us and twenty in front.'

'Barret?'

'Yes sir.'

'Check the other corridor, make sure there's no route down for the ones at the Shoeman. There probably is a service duct or passageway.'

She moved quickly away from the others and headed into the darkness of the short corridor.

Ohlson turned to Smith. 'Use the sight and tell me what's in front of us.'

They took up positions behind one of the pillars to their right. One of the large consoles was sited on each side of the four-sided pillar it had a continuous stream of snow on the screen. It gave the place an eerie ambience.

Smith knelt beside the commander. He touched his rifle and initiated the heat scanners. He glanced into the firing aperture.

The square seemed dull until his eyes got adjusted to the low-level illumination. Green lines silhouetted all objects, but left them relatively dark. Life signs would appear as yellow or blue depending on the amount of heat they would generate. 'There's nothing as far as the sensor can see.' He adjusted the range finder on the sight, numbers tippled into focus on the right side of the view square. They stopped as the scope reached the focal limit of the beam it had emitted. 'One hundred and fifty meters to the far wall.'

'Yeoman, have a look at the far end of that corridor, but don't leave our line of vision.'

Kausler said nothing, just turned and headed into the darkened corridor.

'Keep an eye on her Alex.'

Smith focused on the crouching figure.

'Sia, I hope is approaching the pylon at this stage. ' _No use worrying about that now, _he brought his mind back to the prison_._ He tapped his combadge. 'Ohlson to Caesar.'

'What is it Commander?'

We have secured the base of the docking pylon, but there is a sizable - eleven-man - troop in the bottom docking bay; that's the floor above our position. The lifts bring you past them, but be careful, I don't know if they can intercept the lifts from where they are, or even if they are aware of our presence.

Oh, to get here press the lowest button in the panel beside the door. It isn't voice activated.'

Mc Sorley thought for a moment. 'We'll come down ten at a time, just in case they have a plan to intercept us.

See you soon, over.'

Commodore Nilis was watching her as she had spoken to Ohlson. 'What do you suggest doing now Commander Mc Sorley?'

'Getting out of the ship sir, and as quickly as we can.'

She opened the door to the main section of the ship. Weapons were scarce. She, Ben and d'Amatsu had a rifle and a hand phaser each. She gave the other two a choice of which to keep and which to hand over. Ben kept the hand phaser, Mc Sorley and d'Amatsu took the rifles.

'Here Captain,' said Mc Sorley handing a rifle and two hand phasers to Devereaux, 'give them to whomever you think could best use them.'

He put one of the pistols in his own hand and then called forward another officer. 'Commander Shirer.'

The commander, a tall athletically built blond man in his thirties walked out of the closest group of escapees. 'Yes sir?'

'Take a rifle, and give Lieutenant Overend the phaser. Form the men into groups of...' he was looking at Mc Sorley.

She wondered why she was getting the stare, and then it came to her. 'Oh, ah ten, groups of ten.'

'I'll take the first ten down, if you don't mind Commander?'

She shook her head to signify that she didn't mind. Mentally she pondered the wisdom of them with six weapons, and one hundred and twenty-one people; she shook her head again.

That was when a blast rocked the Caesar and all on board her.

'Open the hatch, secure the immediate area and start the evacuation.'

Mc Sorley's order electrified those stunned by the unexpected explosion. Tambecki led the way; d'Amatsu was right behind her.

Shirer was the lead man in the ex-prisoner group; he started to form them into tens for the trip in the lifts. 'Goodwin, you have the first batch, I'll go down with the second, Overend you take the rear.' All those so informed nodded that they had received and understood the order. No one mentioned that those who were in the other groups to descend to the pylon's base would do so without the benefit of armed escorts. 'Sir,' Shirer addressed Devereaux, who was standing alongside Mc Sorley and Nilis. 'You should go with Commander Mc Sorley, it'll be the best armed group.'

Devereaux nodded, although Mc Sorley noted the reluctance.

'Right then, Commodore, Captain, would you follow Lieutenants Tambecki and d'Amatsu.'

'What about you Commander?' asked the Vulcan.

'I'll lock up the Caesar and take the third group down.'

Devereaux smiled, and then turned and left the ship. Tambecki had already summonsed the lift and stood watching for the doors to open. She wondered what had caused the explosion; it had sounded to be close and large.

It had indeed been close, or relatively close for a torpedo.

'Damage report!' Sia picked himself up and struggled into the captain's chair.

Colimo had managed to stay in his chair. 'Shields are down to thirty percent, there is one hull breech in engineering. That's everything.'

_Surprisingly little considering_, thought the captain.

'We're being hailed, from Commander Ohlson.'

'On screen.'

'It's only audio sir.'

'Then let's hear it.'

Ohlson got straight to the point. 'What was the explosion Sia?'

'Two torpedoes exploding twenty kilometers above the station, we hit the fighter wave as it attempted to intercept us.

They weren't prepared to use heavy weapons for some reason, they've stuck exclusively to disruptor shots. It would appear that they want us crippled but not dead. That said they were all getting very close, too close.

Anyway, we jettisoned a large transit container with some scrap phasered to its side to give the idea that it had came off us, then as it neared their position we fired a couple of torpedoes at it.

They didn't heed it as much as they should have but then again how where they to know the container had another two torpedoes inside. They should have scanned it instead of presuming it fell off us.

The quadruple blast caught two of the Jem'Hadar, not fatally I fear, but they were rattled and have moved back a bit. That should give everyone some time to consolidate positions.

How's everything else going?'

'We have yet to encounter the locals, and so far it's only us in the prison, so hurry and join us, over.'

'You heard the man, Chief dock us,' Sia turned and walked over to T'sella, 'I'll take the console you go and ready the weapons and materials that we can take with us.'

The Vulcan left the post and hurried left the bridge on her way to collect and pack the stores that they could take. Sia prepared the program that would deactivate the Gaunt.

'Computer this is Lieutenant Singh, code clearance sigma alpha five eight two omega. Initiate routine diagnostics check Singh one on my instruction.' If he wasn't able to lock out the computer using his ersatz code clearance then he had to employ a trick or two to do the same job.

He rerouted the engineering self-diagnostic program, a method that engineers employed to test each of the systems that comprised the complex that was the engines of the ship.

Then he gave a priority request for the computer to test itself and route the results to Lieutenant Singh.

That meant the results would be fed to his combadge. He added that the test was to continue until he told the computer otherwise. That would result in continuous contact between Sia and the ship, and no one else.

If someone attempted to gain access then Sia would have as much as three minutes in which to stop him or her. He wondered if he would be able to stop them.

Colimo had the docking pylon in his sights, he checked that no enemy craft was about to disrupt the procedure. None where - which was something that struck him as unusual, after all this was the most vulnerable that they had been. He wondered what the Dominion was protecting. He dismissed further speculation on the topic and concentrated on getting close enough to the clamps so they would auto activate.

He heard the muffled clang as they caught and held. He killed the engine. All he, or anyone, would have to do to leave the pylon was apply a moderate thrust and the clamps would then disengage.

He turned to where Sia was working. 'We've docked sir.'

Mc Sorley nodded as Devereaux's group departed. The lift doors shut and the sound of the engine was the only clue that they had moved. They had used the lift to the right of the airlock exit for the first group. The other lift had a crowd of people outside the open doors waiting.

'Next batch get ready.' Shirer moved the phaser about in his hand. 'You can go in the second lift as soon as we know the first group has arrived below.'

Mc Sorley wondered was he nervous or just itching to get some action against his one-time gaolers.

Hope Barret had inched down the short corridor. It was almost forty meters in depth and dark. She kept a finger on the trigger and after debating about whether or not to engage the safety, she had disengaged it. If something happened that called for her to use the gun then the safety would cost precious seconds. If nothing happened then there would be nothing lost. She walked slowly, trying to be as quiet as she could be. The shadows seemed still.

She was halfway into the space, and had started to wonder what the purpose of this corridor had been. Perhaps, it was just the extra space needed to support the towering pylon that soared above where she was.

She saw a door, it was to her right, and it was open.

'Barret to Commander Ohlson.'

'Come in Ensign.'

'I have an open door, I think its either a storeroom or a service station, permission to explore sir.'

'Granted, be careful.'

_Be careful! If she had have been really careful she'd be working on some corporate legal problem at this stage._

She glanced nervously behind her in the direction of her crewmates. She couldn't even see them as anything more than moving shadows through this gloom. She looked back at the open door and walked towards it. She stifled a cough as mini clouds of dust rose from the floor.

'Still nothing,' Smith lowered the scope and looked at Ohlson. 'She's taking her time and advancing slowly.' He looked back into the scope. 'It doesn't make a lot of sense that they haven't made a move to stop us, either from the Shoeman or the main building. They MUST know we're here.'

Ohlson looked into the darkness. He nodded. 'Yes, I've been wondering why they been so reluctant to fight.

What military grounds would there be not to attack an enemy at their weakest point?'

Smith considered whether the question was a rhetorical one or not, then decided to answer it anyway. Even if he got the answer wrong, maybe he could get some idea from Ohlson. 'They could be afraid they'd kill someone in our group.'

Marcus nodded again.

'Or they are weaker than we think they are.'

No nod this time, the commander appeared lost in thought.

'Maybe they don't even know we're here.'

'That is a possibility, although I'd think they must have some communications system that would allow the battleship and fighters to inform them of developments they themselves could not see.'

They heard it together, a slight hum and then hush. They looked around for the source. The doors of the lifts opened. Out walked a small man in the uniform of a Starfleet captain, nine others quickly followed him. They stood near the lift. The captain looked around him, spied the duo and approached them.

The lift doors closed again.

Ohlson tapped his combadge. 'Ohlson to Mc Sorley, the arrivals are safe, the lift is on its way back.'

Mc Sorley's voice answered. 'Affirmative.'

Captain Devereaux knelt on one knee beside the two men. 'I am Captain John Devereaux of the U.S.S. Hawaii, I believe I owe my short-lived freedom to you Commander Ohlson?'

'Yes Captain, that would be accurate.

Tell me, what was it like here, before our arrival?'

'Ready?

Colimo nodded. T'sella bowed.

Sia touched the command key and the door of the Gaunt opened. Colimo had his rifle trained at the center of the panels.

There was no one outside the ship.

T'sella and Singh ran to the lift doors and scanned for Jem'Hadar. There was nothing, there were only the three Starfleet personnel on this level of the pylon, although they were on the uppermost level.

'Tricorders are useless,' T'sella was adjusting the sensitivity, 'too much shielding and interference from the structure.'

'The structure?'

'Yes, Lieutenant, the composites of the walls and floors are confusing the readings.' She put the device away.

He tapped his badge, ' Sia here, we're in the pylon.'

Mc Sorley heard the lieutenant's message. 'Sia, I'm letting the lift go all the way to your position. Come down as far as us and reinforce this position.'

'Will do, Commander.'

'That'll let us put some further escorts in the lifts.' She had addressed the information to Commander Shirer, but she wasn't certain that he had heard her or not. He seemed about to let the second lift depart from the ground.

'Commander Shirer!'

He turned to her. 'Yes... Commander?'

'That lift is going up, we can collect some firepower and combadges as well as consolidate our numbers in one go.'

He paused, and then he turned to those in the lift. 'Out, but get ready to get back inside.'

The ten that had been allocated the lift disembarked, they must have been annoyed but no one said a word in protest. Mc Sorley wondered was she making enemies.

The lift doors closed.

'Sia,' she said, 'the lift is on its way.'

Devereaux had not answered Ohlson's query about prison conditions, instead he had asked for and received a complete rundown on the name and rank of all those involved in bringing them back to the prison.

Marcus glanced over at the lifts, there was a crowd forming and they had no cover to speak about. 'Get your people to move away from the lift. I'm afraid they'll just have to take cover until we acquire further weapons, but we have a lot more to do to ensure no more get killed.'

Devereaux nodded. 'Commander, please bear in mind that you are not the ranking officer here, among those you rescued is one captain, one commodore and three or more other commanders. You look after the perimeter security and use your own people to do so. Is that clear?'

Ohlson paused before speaking.

Smith thought for a moment that he was going to refuse to accept orders from Devereaux or any other of the former prisoners, but when he answered the captain his tone was neutral.

'Yes sir, that would be what I was expecting. We are in the process of securing this part of the building, as well as those sections directly adjacent. There are maintenance airlocks to the right at the bottom of this corridor, we will be checking them shortly.' He stopped speaking and watched Devereaux.

'Very good Commander, those service airlocks can only accommodate two people at a time. I saw them in use while they held us. They are not a priority at this time.' He stopped speaking to catch a breath. 'Let me know if anything changes.' With that he rose and returned to the others near the lift. He stopped and spoke to a tall figure.

'That, I presume, would be Commodore Nilis.'

Smith felt uncomfortable at being present as the minor confrontation between Devereaux and Ohlson. He didn't know if he was supposed to say something about the incident, or to pretend it hadn't happened. Ohlson brought up the subject straight away.

'I have little option but to follow his orders, but I still know that something is not right in all this, and I do want answers.' He turned to Smith. 'I will not be asking you to do anything against regulations, but do keep me informed of any developments, especially things that you don't quite follow or seem odd.'

Smith nodded. 'Why isn't Nilis the one giving orders?'

'Another question for which I have no answer at this time. Could be that the commodore is delegating all operational matters to the starship captain. Devereaux has more experience than Nilis at that.'

'How come?'

'Nilis is, or was, attached to Starfleet Intelligence. She analysed, she was never a filed commander.' He dismissed any further contemplation on the topic.

Let's get back to scanning for the enemy, how's Gretchen doing?'

'Fine she's almost at the far wall.'

'I wonder what's keeping young Barret?' Ohlson glanced back to where Barret had gone.

Young Barret was in some difficulty. She had walked into the open door that she had found and discovered that it was a service area. In one corner it had a ladder leading up, and down, and while she could not see where it went in either direction, she had climbed up some distance. She passed a hatch in the middle of the conduit and to the left of the ladder.

She thought she had not climbed enough to reach the next level up, she was in another recess, this one without a door, she wondered was she between floors.

She rested for a moment in the darkened niche. She had been about to communicate to Ohlson her whereabouts and that she was returning when she had heard something.

She poked her head out over the top of the ladder and looked up at where she thought the noise had originated. She froze as she caught sight of the back of a Jem'Hadar soldier.

She inched back into the recess' darkness, and waited. Her rifle was ready, her mind raced with questions about what the soldier - another sound, soldiers - were doing in the service conduits, readying for an attack, or hiding. She was too close to the enemy to risk tapping her combadge, she hoped no one was about to attempt to communicate with her.

'I'll give her a call and see what's the matter,' Ohlson's hand went to his combadge.

'The lieutenant commander is here.'

Smith's observation stopped Ohlson as he glanced around to see the figure of Deborah Mc Sorley approaching, Benko Tambecki was alongside her.

'Sia and his team are at the Caesar, they'll act as escort or rearguard, depending on what happens here.' She looked around her. 'Where are Kausler and Barret?'

'Kausler is down there.' He indicated the darkened corridor in front of them. As for Ensign Barret.' Ohlson stood. 'Tell Gretchen to give the airlock storerooms a scan and delay the inspection until further notice. Keep an eye on the newly freed, and our own people, I'm going to find her.' He checked his phaser, even though it didn't need checked. 'Alex will fill you in. With that he was off heading into the corridor opposite. 'Where have you gotten to my lost ensign?' he mumbled to no one in particular.

She risked another look. The soldier was gone, or at least that portion of his body that she had seen earlier was. She debated whether or not to go further up the ladder and see if he, and the others, where still there.

There was the soft sound of a boot shuffling on the metal floor. _Well, that was her question answered,_ she thought. Time to get out of here. She moved as quietly as she could and placed one foot on the ladder, then she carefully moved the rifle until it was on her back. All the while she was looking into the spot where the enemy had been moments before.

Then she was on the ladder and slowly descending.

It was the slowest ladder descent she had ever made. She hoped the rifle would not dislodge itself from the relative quiet of her cushioned back, she hoped the Jem'Hadar was on a tea break or whatever it was they went on - probably nothing. Most of all she hoped she would get out of this alive. Her foot reached another rung.

He was in the corridor, it looked more ominous than he had first realized. Then he saw the door. _Would an academy-fresh ensign go alone to investigate that_? He thought back to his post academy days. He sighed, and started walking carefully towards the door, his phaser was no longer hanging aimlessly at his side.

Gretchen Kausler was holding her phaser rifle steady. She was in the middle of the corridor, kneeling behind another of the consoles that dotted the large space. She thought that Smith should still be perfectly capable of seeing her. She hoped that the Jem'Hadar that was crawling towards the lifts could not.

The corridor branched at the end, and even in the darkness with a sight, she was unable to make out what was at the limits of the building. She had seen the map. The hub should be to the left and along the wall. That was believable as she had seen debris along that corridor and most seemed to be coming from the left side. It looked like their torpedo had destroyed that section with ease. It had also provided enough debris to confuse the internal geography of the building.

She had heard Ohlson's instruction to delay investigation of the airlocks. That sounded okay to her, there would have been no time for the Dominion to have gotten a party around to that spot... not for a while yet did she believe that the airlocks were a serious threat to their position.

Apart from the hub, the first block in the establishment should start opposite the bombed hub and to her right, approximately twenty meters away from her current position. She had no time to investigate that further, she had caught the soldier as he crawled from the rubble and rounded the corner. He must have missed her as she had been scanning the other side - a short hall with what appeared to be small storerooms at the bottom. She would have been sheltered by the console at her back as he had came along the area between blocks..

She moved her legs to make kneeling more comfortable and then she aimed the rifle at the intruder.

Another batch of the ex-Hawaiian crew departed as the lift doors closed, Lieutenant Overend shepherded the second to last group to the next lift.

Sia walked to the large windows at the end of the hall, there was little to do while they waited for the lift's arrival. He looked up into the sky. There was little visible except the stars. The Gaunt was a hundred meters or so above and to his left. The Jem'Hadar, yes he wondered where they were, and why they had not attempted to stop them. A flicker of a shadow crossed the sky, and then it was gone.

'What was that?'

The speaker was a small oriental woman. She wore the blue of a science officer she looked grimy, tired and very nervous.

'A Jem'Hadar fighter.'

The news didn't seem to surprise her, or worry her any more. She just made a face.

'Were you on the Hawaii?'

'Yes, I'm Ensign Lockhead, Samantha Lockhead.' She glanced out into the shadows. 'I'm a medic, it would appear that there will be need for my services before long.'

I'm Lieutenant Sia Singh, of the,' he was going to say the Augustus, but paused, ' of the Gaunt.' Which was technically true, he was still the commander of the Gaunt, at least until he was relieved or it was destroyed or captured.

'Pleased to meet you Lieutenant Sia Singh.' Sam Lockhead smiled, it was a pretty smile.

'What happened with the Hawaii?'

She shrugged. 'I was asleep, I woke to hear the alarms, and feel the disruptors or whatever was hitting us, and rushed to Sickbay. I'd only started to give some aid to a lieutenant who had arrived with severe plasma burns when...' she shivered at the memory, 'Jem'Hadar entered and imprisoned us all.' She stopped and looked back at her crewmates.

'What of the ship?'

'The ship?'

He nodded. 'The Hawaii, what happened to it?'

She looked blank for a moment. 'I don't know, I suppose they destroyed it. We were moved into a large ship, transported, and then after an hour or so we were here.'

'What happened here?' He tried his best to sound sympathetic and not interrogatory.

She didn't seem to mind talking. 'We were over two hundred when we arrived. They killed some and then killed some more. The ones who had been badly injured were never removed from the Hawaii. They never reached here.'

He didn't know what he could say to make her feel better.

'Thanks for coming and trying to rescue us.'

'Don't thank us yet, thank us when we reach Starbase 283.' He smiled.

She smiled at that comment too.

He took another glance out of the window and into the sky, there was no sign of any Dominion activity. He shifted the rifle's position slightly just to remind himself where it was.

Mc Sorley had listened without comment as Smith told her of the meeting between Ohlson and Devereaux. He also told her of the voiced misgivings that he and the commander had shared.

He finished speaking and waited.

Tambecki had listened too. 'He's right you know.'

'What do you mean?' Mc Sorley was looking directly at the lieutenant.

'There is something fishy about what we've seen. More questions than answers, and the questions keep pointing us towards some sort of duplicity and treachery among some, at least, of our own folk.

As for the enemy, they act, or don't, as the case may be, like they know something very important that we don't.'

Mc Sorley nodded. 'I do agree that we don't appear to be in procession of all the relevant facts. But apart from the behaviour of the Shoeman, I'd be loath to describe it as treachery.

By the way, where are the two officers that were beamed from the Shoeman?'

Tambecki had been wondering that too.

Smith looked uncomfortable.

'Didn't Devereaux or Nilis ask about Lu?'

'No,' he was still uncomfortable, 'they don't appear to know, yet.' He licked his lips and avoided eye contact. 'They don't seem to be aware of the Shoeman's survival, and that it's docked just below where they disembarked.'

Mc Sorley looked like she was having difficulty digesting and using the information that she had been given. 'Didn't the commander tell them he took the mission leader off his own ship and then shot him?'

Smith looked at Mc Sorley liked she'd asked a very unfair question.

'I take it that you would rather I didn't ask such a question as where they might be?'

Smith nodded.

She sighed, it was beginning to look like imprisonment in a Dominion prison might be the best way her future could go. She made a mental note to have a chat with Ohlson when he put in an appearance.

Smith returned to scanning for Kausler. He found her again. 'Why's she pointing this way with the rifle?'

Sia tapped his badge. 'Computer, report on ship's status.'

'Conducting a diagnostic routine as per the instructions of Chief Engineer Singh.'

'Has anyone attempted to gain access to the vessel or to any of its parts?'

'No.'

'Carry on with the diagnostics check.' Then as an afterthought he added. 'Computer, where are the Jem'Hadar ships and personnel to your position?'

A pause. 'Two fighters are fifty-one and fifty-four thousand kilometers above this position. The battleship's position is unknown. Four Jem'Hadar are outside the entrance ramp, they have just left the vicinity.'

The last piece of news made the engineer glance out the window again. He could see nothing other than the tranquillity of the gray lunar surface. There were no shadows moving, it was very still.

He glanced back at the lifts. Sam Lockhead was there, she was talking to another blue uniform.

The last two batches were ready for departure. He walked towards the nearest. d'Amatsu was standing watching him, he walked over as he neared the lift. 'The Chief and T'sella are down, he took that last one, its our turn next.' He looked at the engineer's face. 'Is anything the matter?'

'Yes,' he spoke low so that his voice carried no further than the other man, 'there is something wrong. I just don't know what it is.'

d'Amatsu looked back at the lifts. A small Chinese looking woman was smiling in their direction. He was puzzled for a moment, and then he saw Sia nod towards her.

'Why don't you go down in that lift?' d'Amatsu walked to the nearest of the lifts. Sia strolled to the other. He went to the one with Sam Lockhead outside the doors.

'Ready?'

There was a scattering of nods. Shirer stood in the middle. Lieutenant Overend touched the controls and the lift doors closed. The last of the escapees and the escorts heard the hum of the engine and then the lift commenced its descent. Sia stood in front of Samantha Lockhead, Overend stood in the middle of the doors. Another lieutenant stood at his right carrying a phaser than had been given to him by Sia. They had managed to bring five rifles and five phasers from the Gaunt, Sia, d'Amatsu and Colimo all kept their rifles from the Augustus, the extras from Gaunt had all been distributed to the Hawaii personnel.

In the last of the lifts were one rifle and three phasers.

Barret was still moving slowly down the ladder when she heard a scrapping sound. Then a figure glanced down from above. Her heart stopped, she knew the blood had drained from her face. Then the face was gone. There was no searing blast of a disrupter, no angry yell of discovery - nothing.

She kept moving back, then she noticed that she was in darkness. While that would explain why the figure above had failed to see her hanging thirty or forty feet below them in pitch darkness, it did pose another question.

Why was she in darkness? The door to the lifts should, and did, let enough light in to illuminate her background. But it wasn't... She made a move to the rifle.

A figure emerged from behind her and clamped a powerful hand across her mouth, a body - bigger than her own - made movement in the confined space all but impossible. She almost had the rifle.

'It's me Ensign, quiet or you'll get us both killed.' The voice was low and whispered.

The voice belonged to Ohlson. Barret relaxed, Ohlson's hand remained were it was.

She tapped his right arm with her left hand.

He slowly released her. She turned and saw that his attention was focused on the top of the ladder,

'How many?' he whispered

She held up one finger, then she shrugged. She was about to clarify what she had meant just in case it hadn't been clear. But Ohlson, pointed up.

'I'll go first, until I get to the next level you stay where you can aim that thing at any possible threats.'

She nodded and positioned the rifle for action. She was wondering what he intended doing, then he was climbing.

Marcus climbed slowly and skillfully, he had been an amateur mountaineer in his academy days. Only an amateur put it made a lot of difference at times like these.

He kept his eyes on the opening above. He pulled himself up at the first level recess. The phaser was back in his hand and pointing up. He beckoned for Barret to follow.

She was slower, but apart from a rustle that nearly passed as background noise she made it.

Marcus smiled encouragement. He leant close to her and whispered. 'If anything happens tap to warn Mc Sorley.'

Hope nodded, not taking her eyes of the space above. There had been no movements, no noise, perhaps they had gone.

Ohlson was climbing again. They were entering the recess were Hope had seen the Jem'Hadar.

Marcus inched forward he hoped the ensign had the rifle aimed slightly away from him. His hand reached the top rung, he pulled himself up slowly.

Colimo and T'sella had arrived at the location of Mc Sorley, Smith and Tambecki. 'Is everyone all right?'

'Yes, why do you ask?'

The Bolian gave a slight shake of the head. 'Nothing I can put my finger on. This just doesn't feel right.'

T'sella made no comment, she knelt beside Smith and readied her rifle.

Mc Sorley grimaced. She looked into the darkness where Kausler was. 'Chief, go and see what's keeping Yeoman Kausler, she's at the bottom of the corridor. I don't want to use the combadge until I know it's safe to do so.'

Colimo nodded, and started of in a crouch into the darkness.

'Should you have asked Devereaux's permission first?' Benko was watching the Bolian as he vanished into the shadows.

'Probably, but I'm taking it that when Commander Ohlson is absent then I can deal with perimeter security as I see fit.'

'Sounds right to me,' Ben looked over to the lifts.

'What's keeping them?' Mc Sorley was impatient to have a discussion with Ohlson.

'Never mind them, what's keeping the last lift load?' Tambecki was looking at the group of Hawaii personnel around the lifts. A murmur was rising that was audible even where the bulk of the Augustus' crew was. She had seen the lift with Mico arrive, he had waved in their direction, but he was waiting for the last and Sia.

Tambecki was noting the increased agitation from those around the lift, she could make out Nilis imposing order.

'Come on Ben,' said Mc Sorley as she started to walk towards the lifts, 'let's go see what the fuss is about.'

Sia had settled a little as the doors whished close. A couple behind him had started a conversation about retrieving food from the prison kitchens, Sam had said nothing but smiled whenever the Chief was caught looking at her.

Overend started straight ahead, his phaser down by his side.

The lift stopped.

The couple ceased talking, Overend looked puzzled.

Sia started to say something, and then realized that the doors were opening.

He glanced over the edge of the ladder.

In front of him he could see the backs of two Jem'Hadar soldiers, they were being talked to by a Vorta. The words were low but he could hear them.

'When they stop you know what to do, but do not enter the lifts.'

One of the soldiers nodded.

The Vorta moved out of the way, Ohlson then saw the door, it led to a larger area. They would be in one of the lift areas. Another docking bay, the one where the Shoeman was. He wondered why only the ground floor and here had doorways into the lift section, then he remembered the small hatches that they had climbed past. They must be the service conduits that led to the lifts themselves. The service area alternated lift hatch and docking bay exits.

The Vorta was speaking again. 'Now go back to covering the ladder.'

The Jem'Hadar turned.

Ohlson ducked down.

'What the...'

A sudden shock hit the lift. Everyone was rocked.

Sia leant against the wall, it was either that or fall.

Then he noticed that the doors were opening. A small gap appeared, in that gap was clearly visible the uniform of a Jem'Hadar soldier.

Colimo had not gotten used to the darkness. He was staying as best he could in the middle. He planned to start scanning the surrounding area in the scope as soon as he reached the next console pillar - there were six in all from where Ohlson had set up his impromptu camp to the end of the corridor where Kausler was. He could still see nothing of Kausler, he squinted into the gloom and hoped he did not trip over anything, or anyone.

He had his phaser in hand as the Jem'Hadar soldier looked over the edge.

Below Ohlson, Barret had watched as her commander ducked back and drew his phaser. She aimed to his right.

The Dominion soldier didn't know what hit him, or to be more accurate, shoot him full in the face. He was thrown back and crumpled against the wall.

Ohlson rose as fast as he was able, trying to get out of the ladderway before any other Dominion troops arrived. He noted that the second soldier and the Vorta were not in the service way, the odds were that they were outside the door, just outside the door. He hurried to ready himself.

As soon as he had cleared the gap, Barret started to follow, she was slower as she had no intention of putting the rifle away this time.

Sia heard a phaser blast, it was low but unmistakably a phaser blast. It seemed to come from outside the immediate area in front of the lift.

The doors were centimeters apart and opening.

Sia's rifle sent a pulse of energy through the gap, he had no idea whether he had hit the uniform, or anyone else.

A blast came into the lift, someone screamed and Sia felt the weight of bodies as people tried to escape by pushing into the corners. He kept his balance and his finger on the trigger.

The doors kept opening. Lieutenant Overend was firing with his hand-held pistol. Someone in the lift screamed again.

Ohlson crouched and kept his aim on the door to the lifts. He heard a scream coming from that direction. He waited.

Barret was a meter below him when she remembered to tap her combadge. 'Barret here, we are...' she wondered how to phrase it, 'under attack.' Sounded about right. 'We are in the service tunnel on level one. The enemy is there.' She grimaced as she thought the last part did not exactly carry any information, or even make sense. After all, if the enemy wasn't there, then who was doing the attacking. She shrugged that away. A grunt escaped her as she started to pull herself unto the room's floor.

'Mc Sorley here, how many and where are they going?'

Barret huffed as she strained to clear the parapet. She heard Ohlson fire again.

'Move out!' Sia dived for the door, there was no point in staying inside the confines of the lift it would only make killing them easier. As he cleared the lift he saw four figures to his left, they had been the ones opening the door, he fired. One fell, the others dived for cover. One was caught in the open, Overend shot him in the chest.

'You heard him, move it!' Overend was kneeling alongside Singh and spraying the general area where the Jem'Hadar had been. In front of him lay the body of another Dominion trooper.

'Look out!' The other lieutenant was firing to their right. Sia turned to see two Jem'Hadar and a Vorta standing there, they were taking cover or firing into another side room.

Sia fired, someone fired from the room, it was a phaser rifle. The Vorta fell, as did one of the others.

There were six or seven further blasts, mostly phasers with only one or two disruptor pulses. Then it was over.

'Casualties?' yelled Shirer.

Sia stood and scanned the vicinity to see what they had done. It looked like seven Jem'Hadar and a Vorta, all had been killed. No, the Vorta was alive.

He looked to the lift, he couldn't see Sam Lockhead. He did see the body of the young lieutenant that had been armed - a medic, no it was Sam - she was beside him. She looked up and caught his eye. She shook her head. Two others were kneeling beside another Starfleet officer, by the looks they were exchanging she was dead too.

'Report Lieutenant Singh?'

Sia was surprised to hear the voice, for a second or two he had the urge to tap his combadge and reply. But, Ohlson was walking from the doorway where the Vorta had been Behind the commander was the more tense figure of Ensign Barret. Despite everything, Sia couldn't help but smile.

'They were attempting to gain access to the lift, I take it that it was your intervention that caused the distraction.'

'Probably,' he was looking at one of the dead Starfleet men.

'Who are you?'

Ohlson looked up at Commander Shirer. 'I'm Commander Ohlson of the U.S.S. Augustus.'

Ohlson's arrival seemed to put Shirer off, for a moment. 'What do you think you're doing Ohlson, you could have gotten us killed, or wasn't that a consideration in your plan? Whose orders were you following when you initiated that attack?'

Marcus glanced past the irate officer to Sia. 'Yes Lieutenant, they weren't going to do anything sinister except kill you all.

Unfortunately,' this bit was addressed to Shirer, 'we interrupted them.'

'You don't know that...'

'Yes, I do, I was listening as they got their orders.'

Barret came up to Ohlson's side she was flushed and still high on adrenaline. 'Perhaps we should have let them kill or capture you -_again _- sir.' The 'sir' was thrown in as an afterthought. She stared at Shirer.

Shirer turned away from the new comers and started barking orders to the rest of the party.

Ohlson and Singh were both looking down at Barret.

'What?' She shrugged, 'he's an...'

'Ensign!' Ohlson's tone was authoritative, but he was grinning. 'Enough Ensign, I'd rather you didn't give Commander Shirer grounds for reprimanding you.

Even if he is a...'

His combadge beeped.

'Ohlson!'

'What's happened?' It was Deborah's voice and she was whispering.

'The Jem'Hadar from the Shoeman were attempting to attack the last batch in the lifts. We have killed them all, but two of our own have been killed,' he glanced back to the doorway, 'oh, we killed all but one. We have a Vorta prisoner.

Now why whisper?'

'Devereaux is livid, he's talking to his man up there.'

Ohlson watched as Shirer talked into his combadge.

'Marcus speak to me as soon as you get here, we'll have to synchronize our reports.'

Ohlson took that to mean get their stories straight. 'As soon as I can,' he looked at the dead men, 'as soon as I can.'


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Colimo was kneeling at the pillar. He raised his rifle and turned the scope on. The pulse of a phaser rifle came from a region of darkness only meters in front of him. He started to ready a retaliatory shot. Then he realized that the shot had not been aimed at his position.

Mc Sorley heard the shot, and turned drawing her phaser. She was aiming into the corridor unable to see anything of note. 'What's out there lieutenant?'

Tambecki was beside her phaser aimed steadily into the shadows. Her eyes were adjusting to the change in illumination.

Smith was quicker. 'The Chief is okay, I can see him moving.' He moved the rifle slightly. 'I can't see the Yeoman, the chief is blocking my view.'

'I can't see them either,' said T'sella, 'but the blast was directed away from the Chief.'

Mc Sorley was counting to ten, she was giving Colimo and Kausler that long to make contact, then she was going to do the talking.

'What happened?' It was Colimo's voice, he sounded unhurt but confused.

'I was hoping you could tell us?'

Kausler's voice was unhurried and neutral. 'I was the one who fired. Chief?'

'Yes.'

'There's a Jem'Hadar soldier about three meters to your left - when you face my direction. He was crawling towards you.'

Colimo rose from his position to go and investigate, he paused as he considered the possibility of others in the darkness. He shrugged, if there had been others Gretchen would have said. He was at the dead soldier in five seconds.

'He's dead all right.' He picked up the bag the man had been carrying. He opened it. 'He had plans. I've five,' he rummaged inside the carrier, 'or six explosive devices. And...' he gingerly picked up a small round canister,' I do believe a communications listening device. He was going to blow us up and listen to the results, perhaps?'

'Report!'

Mc Sorley turned at the sound of the anxious command. It was Devereaux, he had the phaser in his hand and looked edgy.

'One of my people encountered a Jem'Hadar soldier carrying explosives and a listening device. She killed him.'

Devereaux looked into the corridor. 'Where is this person?'

Mc Sorley pointed. 'Down there.'

'Get her back here, we haven't enough personnel to have them strung out all over the building.' He lowered his weapon but still looked edgy.

_No_, thought Mc Sorley, _he isn't edgy he's angry_.

'I believe I am going to have to speak to you and your commander about just how flexible you think my instructions can be interpreted. Keep your people at this point, go no further without my express permission. Do you understand that Lieutenant Commander?'

A pause. 'Yes sir, I do.'

He turned away and walked back to the rest of the Hawaii's crew near the lifts.. He passed d'Amatsu as the engineer approached the rest of the Augustus' crew.

'He didn't look happy.' Mico was grinning.

'No he isn't.' She taped her badge. 'This is Mc Sorley, Chief Colimo and Yeoman Kausler, report to me at the console.' She considered saying something to Mico but resisted the urge. 'Where the hell is Ohlson?'

Ohlson was with Sia and Barret, they were readying to move the last of the lift's occupants to the bottom of the pylon. He coaxed the last ensign inside the lift. That left himself, Sia Singh, Hope Barret, Shirer and another ensign on the level where the attack occurred. That and the dead, who Ohlson had insisted be left. Shirer had been about to make an issue of moving the corpses, but Ohlson's people had appeared very intimidatory to Shirer. He had left mumbling about telling Devereaux.

Before leaving Shirer had collected the weaponry from the dead Jem'Hadar, and he also supervised the removal of the unconscious Vorta.

As he left Ohlson called after him. 'They have a suicide implant, remember to get a medic or a doctor to remove it soon, if he wakes up and its still in place-'

'I do know my job Commander,' Shirer didn't even attempt to hide his contempt for Ohlson, 'I was the security officer on the Hawaii, not a pocket runabout.'

The obvious jib at the Augustus went unanswered. 'Ohlson smiled. 'Then I'll leave it all in your capable hands.' He stood and watched as Shirer and the ensign got in the lift. They were looking at the Augustus' personnel.

'Are you getting in Commander?'

Ohlson shook his head. 'That would be too cramp, we'll follow down the service conduit.' He was still smiling.

Shirer's hand went to the lift panel. The doors closed and then they heard the hum as it commenced to descend,

'Okay,' asked Barret when the hum had deceased, 'what are we doing here, sir?'

Marcus saw Sia counting the bodies. 'What is it Lieutenant?'

'I was in touch with the Gaunt, the computer told me that four Jem'Hadar had just left it.

I'm hoping that they are among this lot.'

Ohlson was turning and heading to the central airlock. 'I know we killed or injured eight Dominion personnel, seven Jem'Hadar and one Vorta, I also remember from our own scans that there was eight Jem'Hadar and three Vorta in or around the Shoeman. That would tell us the four the Gaunt mentioned is here. That said, ' he turned to the Shoeman. 'There is still more to do. So,' he was still smiling, 'we're going to find the missing threesome.' He started to work on the airlock's mechanism. 'Get ready in case they aren't in the ship, but waiting.'

_Waiting? _Hope had the rifle aimed at the center of the airlock doors.

Sia took up position on the opposite side to Ohlson's.

'Ready?' The commander glanced to Sia, the Indian nodded without taking his eyes from the doors.

Barret licked her lips. 'Ready.'

There was a hum and then the airlock doors started to open.

As Shirer and the others left the lift Devereaux and Nilis met them. There was a discussion that Mc Sorley had no wish to partake in. She looked back as the figure of Chief Colimo emerged from the shadows, he carried a rucksack and rifle in his arms that were not Starfleet issue.

Seconds later they were joined by Gretchen Kausler. 'He came from the next block across, I saw no one else. Those airlocks will have to be checked within the hour in case the enemy uses them to infiltrate another bomber.' She closed the scope on her rifle and switched the power gauge to off.

Mc Sorley nodded. 'At the first opportunity. Bear in mind, that we have few enough without stretching them the length and breadth of the ground level.'

Colimo had opened the bag to show the others the weaponry that the dead man had carried. Kausler bent and picked up one of the bombs, then she replaced it with the listening device. She turned it in her hand and nodded. 'It hasn't been activated yet.' She placed a finger near a small button. 'That's the activator.'

'I wonder where in the block the listening post is?'

'Nowhere.'

Mc Sorley was frowning at the yeoman. 'What do you mean nowhere?'

She held the device high for all to see. 'These are not for short-range eavesdropping. My guess is the listening point is on the battleship.' She set the bug into the rucksack.

'She is correct,' T'sella had given the device a long hard look, 'the only platform, that we are aware of with the capacity to use this device is in the skies above. It could be one of the fighters, but more likely to be as Yeoman Kausler says, the battleship.'

Mc Sorley digested the news. She scratched her head. 'The battleship?'

Kausler was looking at the explosives. 'These are unusual too.

They can be programmed for to explode as proximity devices, mines, magnetic, timer, or remote.' She pointed to a small panel with four coloured keys. 'This one is set on remote.' She tapped a key and a yellow light blinked twice then went off. She then repeated the action with the others - five in total. 'They're safe now.'

'You mean they weren't?' Tambecki's mouth was hanging open as she looked at the mines that had been lying in front of her. If someone on the battleship had flicked a switch...

The doors to the airlock serving the U.S.S. Shoeman opened.

There was no enemy present in the small space.

Ohlson moved into the airlock and over to the doors that led to the Shoeman. He did not bother readying his team. He tapped the panel - nothing happened. 'It's locked.'

He took a step back, drew his phaser, aimed, and fired. There was a shower of sparks, and a small piece of the paneling spun into the wall. There was a hum, and the thick doors that led to the spaceship started to move.

The side hatch to the Shoeman was open. Ohlson waited. Nothing happened. He moved slowly into the ship. The short entrance hall opened into the corridor that led, to the right to engineering and the briefing room, and to the left and the bridge.

He pointed to the left. Sia and Barret followed. Sia nudged Barret to stay behind and watch the rear.

He turned into the bridge quickly ready to shot any of the three enemy he knew where still on the ship. He didn't have to.

The two Vorta lay on each side of the captain's chair. The Jem'Hadar was slumped near the tactical station. Each of them had perished by a disrupter blast, it seemed that the Jem'Hadar had killed the two Vorta and then shot himself. Ohlson was kneeling beside one of the Vorta seeking an answer or two to some of the questions that bothered him.

'Over here sir.'

He turned to where Sia was standing at the tactical station. He was looking at the console.

Barret followed as Ohlson walked over and looked at what Sia was indicating.

The self-destruct had been activated.

The momentary urge to escape vanished as he read the console. The self-destruct had been initiated, but it had failed.

He inspected the console to see why the program had malfunctioned.

Barret explained. She was scanning the operations console. 'The phaser fire we directed at the ship when it killed the engines, it fused some of the secondary power conduits. When the main power failed the ship they must have switched to auxiliary, but that would have been Lu. The Vorta must not have known that the secondary relays were employed so when they turned the self-destruct on it was too much for the weakened system. It overloaded.

There's something else.'

'What's that Ensign?'

'The self-destruct was initiated prior to our docking.'

He thought a moment. 'If the ship had exploded what would be the state of the docking bay?'

Barret shrugged. Sia was calculating. 'It would probably be enough to destroy the tower.'

'So they were probably planning on stopping our return.' He hummed for a few seconds. 'Can you turn the thing off?'

'Easy,' said Barret, 'but that'd mean doing a complete system's shutdown and then reinitializing the lot. It'd take ten or fifteen minutes.' She paused. 'Do you want me to continue?'

Ohlson thought about it. 'No, not yet. Collect any weapons combadges or anything else that may be useful. Search the ship while you are doing that.'

'What for? asked Sia.

'I have no idea. but I'd like to know why they wanted to destroy this ship, wouldn't you?'

Sia moved off into the engine room and the other sections at the rear of the ship. Hope went to the ops console and started to open files and read them into her tricorder. As a sensor it was next to useless, but it could still be utilized as a data storage device.

Ohlson opened all the latest log entries, there were seven. He then downloaded them to his tricorder. He thought about what to do next, then he had an idea.

He walked from the bridge past Barret. I'm heading to check the transporter logs, and collect some munitions, let me know if you find anything.

The ops station collected the data of all ship movements and communications, she was reading the transmission data, expecting little to none since the Shoeman had kept radio silence and been reticent at other communications prior to the operation. But, apparently the Shoeman had been more talkative than she had let on. Combined with a subspace carrier wave that emanated from the deflector dish, was a signal.

She enhanced the signal, she didn't recognize it as other than a homing beckon. _But, why would the Shoeman be transmitting a homing signal._

She checked the signal's wavelength. The computer informed her that Starfleet did not normally use that particular wavelength._ It must be a Dominion wavelength,_ she thought. Since before they had entered the nebula., the Shoeman had been letting all Dominion traffic know where they were. She looked for Ohlson but he was gone.

Sia was in Engineering. He had found two bodies, both ensigns in Starfleet uniforms, and both killed by disrupter blasts. The engines were sound but would require a little shielding as the Augustus' attacks seemed to have loosened something. Singh felt a smile cross his face. His ship had beaten the supposed better Shoeman. Never mind that he now had to get the thing spaceworthy again. Still... he checked around for weapons and found the engine room's supply of rifles and phasers, four of each. He looked for and got a workbag and collected the four environment suits that were stored.

'Computer. Initiate the transporters.'

There was a blinking of indicator lights as the console was activated.

'Transfer all logs to the tricorder.'

'There are no log entries for transportation on this voyage.'

He hadn't expected any. 'Open a link to the U.S.S. Augustus' transporters, authorization Commander Marcus Ohlson, gamma, gamma, zero, three, nine ,theta.'

'Link open.'

'Transfer the program Ohlson eighteen, to the U.S.S. Shoeman's buffers.'

There was a hum. 'Transfer complete.'

'Computer what is the status of the two individuals currently contained in the pattern buffers?'

'Both patterns are stable, although it is inadvisable to keep humans in the transporter pattern buffers for longer than two hours.'

He mentally calculated that they were still inside the two hours, he expected that Lu and the ensign would be kept disembodied in the pattern buffers for a lot longer than the two hours. He had better be correct in his assessment that Lu was one of the baddies in whatever was going on here, if he was wrong... Well, he could always become a librarian like his brother Lars, which would be after they released him from prison.

'Computer, maintain this program until further notice, and limit access to Ohlson and above.' There was no way he could place security limitations on a ship that was not his, but he was counting on the fact that no one else knew where Lu and the ensign were. 'Stay in shutdown mode.'

The lights on the console blinked off. It would take an examination of the currently running programs or the ship's energy usage to determine that someone was using the transporters. Ohlson left the transportation pad and walked to the bridge.

'So they were attracting the Jem'Hadar while we hid on the demon.'

Ohlson had listened as Barret showed him what she had found.

'I inspected the console, and found this.' She pointed out a small round piece of metal attached to the inner workings of the machine. 'It was what was transmitting the signal, and it was doing so via the Shoeman's sensor array.

It was a trap, although why they captured the Shoeman and destroyed or tried to destroy the rest of us I don't know.'

'Can you remove it?'

'Yes, but this was only the apparatus to camouflage the signal the signal itself is reproducible by any of the ships.'

'Take a note of what it transmits then.'

'Already done that sir.'

'Very good ensign, did you recover anything else of worth?'

She picked up the tricorder and scanned the data. 'Some mapping information of this region, a scan of the system - probably made as they entered the vicinity - other than that... nothing.'

'Okay go and help Sia, there should be a good collection of weapons and assorted useful stuff on the ship to bring back.'

'Sir?'

'Yes.'

'Why are we collecting weapons, medikits, dermal regenerators and other medical equipment and environment suits if we expect Starfleet to come and get us?'

Ohlson looked at the earnestness of the blue eyes. 'I don't think Starfleet will get here before the Dominion mounts some serious challenges to our presence.

I don't know what we've tumbled into ensign, but there is something, or someone, among our people that is worth enough to prevent them smashing us from the battleship. I want to know who or what that is, and I want to know the reason it is worth all our lives.'

'Is it this ship?'

Ordinarily Ohlson would not have discussed his thoughts with either one of his crew and especially not an ensign, or stood talking while there was so much to do, but Barret, he felt, needed the reasons so she could give all she could. She needed something to aim at, an enemy to identify, and a cause to follow. 'There is something about the ship, I don't think its being carried in the ship, because we would have found it, but it might be the ship itself.

Remember, I think it was Tambecki, well whoever it was, someone suggested that if they captured our fleet they could use them to get close enough to Starbase 283 to attack and allow a follow-up with a stronger Dominion fleet. And the fall of 283, would be potentially disastrous,' she nodded that she was following the scenario, 'well, I think that something like that was... or is, planned.

And we are in the way.'

She looked thoughtful. 'Thank you sir.'

'What for Ensign?'

'Taking the time to explain to me, I appreciate it.'

He smiled. 'Take that transmitter with you and then show me how much you appreciate it by helping Lieutenant Singh.'

'Aye aye sir.' She walked quickly toward engineering.

_She'll make a fine officer one day, if she survives this_, he thought.

At the base of the docking pylon, Devereaux was with Mc Sorley. 'Where is your commander?'

'I have no idea, other than he is taking up the rearguard of the last lift evacuees, sir.'

The captain was pacing. They were standing apart from the others. Shirer was forming three squads and arming them with the recovered weaponry. Mc Sorley was listening to him as he gave instructions to the squad leaders. It seemed that Shirer, presumably from Devereaux, had been given overall control of the defense of the Starfleet personnel. 'His recklessness will get us all killed. Commander Shirer reports that your Commander Ohlson initiated an attack on a weak enemy position that resulted in them counterattacking where we were weakest.' Devereaux had ceased his pacing and was facing Deborah. 'If he continues to act defiantly and dangerously I will have no option but to relieve him of his command.'

Mc Sorley said nothing, she was acutely aware of Devereaux's eyes on her. 'Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Now, tell me about this operation to free us, leave nothing out and tell the whole story up until the point where we are standing here.

Begin.'

She licked her lips. 'Four ships, under the command of Captain Lu, left Starbase 283...' She was wondering which parts to skip over and which to just... have an attack of amnesia about. 'The mission was to rescue you. We were the reserves and based on the Demon class planet near here.

We discovered that large numbers of Jem'Hadar were hidden on the planet and went to warn the rest. They had already engaged the enemy.

All were destroyed, we escaped to the Demon where we found several wrecks and used them to...' she waved one hand, 'do this.

Unfortunately, while retreating we ran into more fighters, twenty-eight we believe, and a battleship. And we would have no possibility of defeating that size of enemy contingent.' She slowed. 'Which brought us back here.'

'What should we do with...' Colimo was with Kausler, T'sella, d'Amatsu, Tambecki and Smith. They had remained at the console. The Bolian was starting to raise his hands with the rucksack that contained the devices they had recovered from the dead Jem'Hadar. Mc Sorley had given the rifle he carried to the Hawaii's security officer and was currently deep in talk with its captain.

Kausler put her hand out and took the rucksack. She was already carrying a well-laden one on her back, but she pulled the new one onto her right shoulder. Colimo and Smith looked at her, she said nothing.

'Are you going to tell Shirer about it?' Smith glanced around to ensure that they were not being eavesdropped upon.

'No.'

'Is there any reason why not?' asked Colimo.

'I think we may have use for it.' That was all she said. The three men and Tambecki looked at each other. Alex shrugged.

Colimo made his own rifle more comfortable. If Gretchen was thinking they would have cause to use explosives, then they probably would. He looked into the corridor with his scope. There was nothing out there that he could see. He noticed that since Kausler's answer they all had adopted a more alert pose than earlier.

'Okay let's go people!'

Barret was the first out of the Shoeman, Singh at her shoulders, Ohlson took the rear. He closed the hatch to the airlock.

'Right, down the ladder that was where we told Shirer we were descending. Ensign you go first, then you lieutenant. '

It took them five minutes to get down the ladder. they were carrying more, and were careful in case of further ambush - although their tricorders told them they had nothing to fear.

Another two minutes and the trio were walking past the lifts. Sia caught sight of Tambecki, she waved him over. He also caught sight of Mc Sorley with Devereaux. 'The Lieutenant Commander seems to be into something heavy with Captain D.'

'I see it.' Ohlson thought he'd better get this bit over with, if he confronted Devereaux now he might be able to maintain some independent function in this operation, which was of course under Devereaux's command seeing as Nilis didn't seem to be getting too involved. 'Join the others, I'll try to keep us together during our time here.

Sia, bring the weapons, first aid equipment and combadges to Commander Shirer.'

Singh took the weapons that Barret had been carrying and started to walk to the lifts.

'Good luck, sir.' Barret said to Ohlson's back.

Sia was scanning the people in and around the lifts. Shirer had gotten a lot of movement going. People appeared to be organizing. Weapons were visible, in around twenty hands. Combadges could be seen on a minority of individuals. Then he saw her, she was in a group of blue uniformed people, and they all were sorting out equipment, which was obviously medical in nature. She was busy, he would get back to her later.

He walked to Commander Shirer. 'These may come in useful.' He put the weapons on the ground, and then unloaded the extra rucksack he was carrying. 'Who will I give the medical equipment to?' Shirer was looking at the handful of weapons. 'Hmm, oh bring them over to Doctor Rolands.' He indicated the group where in which Sia had seen Sam Lockhead.

The Indian left the weapons and walked towards the group of medics.

'Report.' Devereaux looked through Ohlson.

'We recovered disrupters and phasers from the dead Jem'Hadar that attacked the lift. We also found the rest of the Dominion squad, they had apparently committed suicide. That means the pylon is now clean of Dominion troops, sir.' He chose not to elaborate on the whereabouts of the suicides. If he asked, he would tell him... If he didn't - then...

He was looking around the group that had gathered around the lifts. He saw Nilis and he saw lots of Starfleet uniforms. 'Where is the Vorta?'

'Dead.'

'Dead?'

Commodore Nilis was questioning him when he started some suicide procedure. We think it was a cranial implant initiated by a verbal command.'

Ohlson was staring in disbelief. 'I told him, the commander, to check the...'

'Enough,' Devereaux's voice had risen, 'Commander Shirer is an able officer Ohlson, and he certainly needs no lessons from you. The prisoner was searched, and scanned. Whatever the device was we didn't see it.'

Ohlson fumed. 'Where is the body?'

'Eh, it was vaporized by phaser. In case it had some further risk element that we were unaware of.'

'The commodore's idea?'

A pause. 'Are you trying to suggest something Commander?'

Ohlson knew he had said too much. 'No sir, I was wondering if the commodore had been in charge then had he gotten any information from the Vorta at all prior to his death?'

Devereaux looked unconvinced but ignored it, for the time being. 'No, he died before even telling his name.'

'Some of those in the lift say you lot saved their lives.'

Barret wasn't sure how to respond.

Tambecki smiled at her. 'Told you you'd do okay.'

Hope smiled nervously and agreed.

'Did you get into the Shoeman?'

Barret was surprised, what surprised her most was that the question had come from Kausler. 'Yes.'

'What did you find?' asked Smith.

'Two dead Vorta and a Jem'Hadar.'

Devereaux turned away from Ohlson and Mc Sorley. 'Shirer?'

The commander walked over purposively gripping his phaser and fiddling with the power gauge. 'Sir.'

'Ohlson your team will take your orders from Commander Shirer,' he paused like he expected Ohlson to protest.

Marcus blinked like he had been expecting more instructions than that.

'How many have we got armed?' The question was to Shirer.

'Forty-six weapons, twenty from the Augustus' arsenal, ten from the Gaunt, and seven more from the Shoeman, of the thirty-seven weapons, eighteen are phaser rifles., the remainder are nine disrupter rifles from the Dominion troops.'

'What about combadges?'

'Less, we have thirty-two working badges. The Augustus' personnel account for ten, you and the commodore have one each and I have distributed the others to the higher ranks.'

Devereaux seemed satisfied at that. 'Good.'

The tall figure of Commodore Nilis approached the four. 'Have you a plan yet, Captain?'

'Yes, Commodore, join us. I am about to tell the others.'

Nilis joined Devereaux, Ohlson, Shirer and a Commander Schellinger - an engineer from the Hawaii - to hear the plan.

'We have three ships, all spaceworthy, docked above us. That is our way out.'

Mc Sorley glanced at Ohlson, she didn't like how Devereaux was starting the plan, and she would bet neither was Ohlson, but he wasn't saying anything, so neither did she.

The captain continued. 'There is, according to the crew of the Augustus, a battleship and several, perhaps as many as twenty-nine...'

'Twenty-eight, sir,' corrected Mc Sorley.

'Twenty-eight, then, twenty-eight attack fighters patrolling off the station. Most, at the last reckoning were still on the planet and outside sensor range.

That means, we have to make a break for it before they amass and destroy us.' He paused to let that bit sink in.

'Sir?'

'What is it Commander?' Devereaux faced Ohlson.

'Just a few points sir, we still haven't the ability to outrun or outshoot the battleship, never mind the fighters. That vessel could take the three ships even if they broke up and went in different directions.

Why not dig in here, and await Starfleet?'

'Because Starfleet won't be coming.'

Ohlson turned to face the speaker, Commodore Nilis.

'We both know Commander, that even if a vessel picks up the distress messages that you sent, they would be unwise to immediately enter the area. It would take too long for them to mount a well-armed response. Whatever plan we adopt will have to include only those materials and personnel that are present.' Nilis nodded to Devereaux. 'Although we might have to elaborate on your plan Captain.'

'What is your suggestions Commodore?'

The Vulcan thought for only a moment before speaking. 'There is still a small garrison in the prison, and probably a series of underground bunkers for storage. I suggest we repair to there and cease whatever munitions and equipment we can. From that secure location we can refine how to use the three ships and escape. Instead of thinking of making a dash to Federation space perhaps taking cover in the planet's atmosphere and using the planet as shield and weapon would increase the chances of us getting away.' She stopped.

Devereaux was nodding. 'Yes, the planet would be good cover, and the battleship would not be able to cover the whole surface area, one or two of the ships might be able to slip away.' He nodded again.

'The planet is not safe.' Marcus watched as the nodding stopped.

'What did you say Ohlson?'

_Not even the rank this time_, thought Mc Sorley.

'It isn't safe sir. We took cover there, the atmosphere is highly corrosive and the place is coming down with Jem'Hadar.

Oh, and one other thing. The Hawaii is there.'

Devereaux was open-mouthed. 'What?'

'The U.S.S. Hawaii, it is still in one piece, it is surrounded by Dominion force fields and fighters. So, you see the planet isn't as safe a place as you might imagine sir.'

'Are you sure that the Hawaii is still operational and on the planet Commander Ohlson?'

_Operational? Who mentioned operational?_ thought Mc Sorley, looking at the commodore.

'I have no idea if she is 'operational' sir...'

Nilis nodded. 'My mistake, I made an assumption based on the bareness of your report. Please proceed.'

'We found sensor logs on some of the downed ships that came on the initial rescue. Those logs pinpointed the Hawaii, and the range of security measures that is in place around it.'

'I see, and do you believe Commander, based on those reports, that we could make it to the planet and either hide or recapture the Hawaii?'

'No sir, I do not, and that is without even knowing the condition of the Hawaii.'

'Do you have a plan?'

Ohlson looked around him. Nilis seemed neutral, Mc Sorley looked like she didn't want to be here, and Shirer and Devereaux looked decidedly hostile. 'We have a limited protection at this end of the prison with the combined shielding afforded by the ships. We have some advantage from sending out the distress message. There is a time limit on how long the enemy can keep us - it might be weeks or months - but they still have a time limit. We have arms, we outnumber the current garrison, and we have something else.'

'What would that be Commander?'

'I don't know Commodore, but there is something here that is stopping that battleship from pounding us to dust. And as long as we keep -whatever that is - we have the advantage of making the enemy use less force than he could to shift us.'

Devereaux seemed lost for words, then he found his voice. 'Ohlson, what are you trying to imply?'

'Nothing sir, but something is preventing the battleship from ending this situation with a few well-aimed torpedoes.'

'Nonsense,' hissed Shirer, 'they can't use torpedoes they'd kill their own men and destroy this building. They'd lose a valuable outpost. Why would they do that? They are just waiting until we dig in and then they will attack us with troops.'

Ohlson shrugged. 'Perhaps you're correct.'

Devereaux was looking from Ohlson to Nilis then Shirer. 'I think the commodore's idea is the best.'

The commodore made no comment.

'Commander Shirer take twenty people and move into the building find where the enemy are hid and find any underground passageways or storerooms.'

'Very good sir.'

'Ohlson.'

'Yes sir?'

'You and your people split into two groups, you take care of perimeter security in this general area. You,' he addressed Mc Sorley, 'will secure the docking bay and the three ships. I want them to be utilized at the earliest possibility. When we arm and secure the station I still want those ships to be part of the escape.'

Mc Sorley nodded.

'I have an idea too,' Nilis looked thoughtful. 'There must be conduits in and around here that link the base's communications array. I will take Commander Schellinger and we can search for them. If we are successful we may be able to tap them and know what the garrison is planning.'

'We might even get a hook on their off-base communications,' offered Schellinger, 'which could provide us with some very useful intelligence in the event that we do get to make a run for it.'

'Okay, you do that,' said Devereaux. 'Commander Shirer, ready your people for departure in ten minutes.'

Shirer nodded then he was gone.

'Mc Sorley move your people into position and keep an open communications link with me.'

Deborah bit back a comment. She glanced at Marcus he was stern faced and gave her a small nod of encouragement. 'I'll get right on it sir.' Then she was gone and walking towards the pillar where the Augustus' crew had gathered.

'Commander Ohlson.'

Marcus looked at him. 'Secure the perimeter, make sure you are aware of Commander Shirer's plans for departure, and arrange a signal for his return. I'd rather we lost nobody to friendly fire. Get to it, and keep an open communication link as well.'

'Yes sir.' With that he turned and followed Deborah. She had slowed to allow him to catch up.

'What did you say about what we found out and suspected?'

'I told him everything.'

He looked to her. 'Everything?'

She pulled a face. 'Not exactly everything. I told him of the initial attack, of us going to the Cicero's aid. Of taking shelter on the planet...'

'And?'

'And, of using the wrecks we found to make up the three we arrived here in.'

'What else?'

'I didn't tell him that we found the Shoeman and that you shot,' she lowered her voice, 'and did something,' he arms waved as she spoke, 'to the captain.'

'And an ensign.'

'And an ensign. Or that we have a detailed map of the prison, or that Gretchen has five bombs she has not bothered to hand in, or...' she was thinking. 'Or, I don't know what else.'

He was smiling. 'Thank you, you did right. We do know that Lu is up to his tonsils in whatever is going on. And I thing Nilis is too.'

'Commodore Nilis. I know she made that mistake about the operationally of the Hawaii, but...'

'But nothing, she was correct. The Hawaii is fully operational.

I saw the reports on the Shoeman's sensors. They are repairing the ship as we speak.' He glanced back at the figures of Nilis and Devereaux. He couldn't be certain but he thought Nilis was looking at them. 'Her plan was to drive us deeper into the building, away from the shields. I don't think they are particularly concerned with our fleet. But I do think they want to find out the whereabouts of someone. And if they succeed in isolating that someone then I think they'll paste this place with torpedoes.'

'Then why is she going along with Devereaux's plan.

'She has to agree with some plan. At least this way she gets the people here to separate and that'll allow the Jem'Hadar to pick off the parties that leave the lifts.

I'd bet that she is very successful in finding a Dominion communications port, and she will be the one to use it.' He glanced around him again. 'Very smart, now she is still at the center of anything we do, and can even start feeding us misinformation all at the same time.'

She saw the look of concern on his face.

'The Dominion knows that their people will stay put. As soon as they see that we are dividing up into smaller groups surrounding a center, then they'll know that their men are in the middle. They will attack.'

'That means Shirer's group is doomed.'

'I don't know about doomed, but yes, they will meet trouble. I don't believe he'd even take any advice that could save him.' She spoke a little lower. 'let's hope he's a good man in a firefight, for his people's sake.'

'What do you intend doing, just sitting and waiting for the Dominion to overrun us?'

'No, we will be leaving here, and...' he smiled at his first officer, 'I want you to work out how to get rid of that battleship.'

They had reached the pillar. Mc Sorley was staring at him.

'I've been thinking about that problem too sir.' They turned and looked at Hope Barret. 'I have an idea of how to get rid of the battleship, but it needs a lot of refining.'

'Go on,' prompted Ohlson after there had been an elongated pause, 'what is it?'

Hope looked at the faces around her, then she gave them her idea. 'We haven't the firepower to destroy it with any one, or even all, of the ships docked at this base.' She paused. The faces were giving her their undivided attention. 'Well?'

Mc Sorley pulled a face. 'Okay, no we don't have the necessary firepower.'

That seemed to satisfy the ensign. 'But the planet does.'

Tambecki looked at Smith to see if there had been something said that she had missed. He shrugged at her.

'Yes,' T'sella was nodding her head. 'That is a good observation, and I see what you mean by it needing refining.'

Colimo glanced between the two women. 'What? Please explain it for my limited intelligence.'

Hope blushed. She was about to apologize for not being clear enough.

'That's right,' Smith did everything except click his fingers together to signal that he understood. 'The planet, it is geologically unsound. If we lure the battleship close enough and ignite one of the thin spots on the crust then a volcanic eruption would certainly do more damage to it than we ever could.'

'A volcanic eruption under it.' Mc Sorley was teasing the notion in her head.

Ohlson smiled. 'Very good Ensign, now find me a way to lure that ship that close to the demon.'

Hope blinked. She was going to say something but stopped. She would think up a way of getting the battleship close enough to be hit by any eruption they could cause, she would, or she hoped that she would.

'Until then,' continued Ohlson, 'Deborah, you Mico, Gretchen, T'sella and Ben secure the perimeter from here. Don't go any further that the bottom of the corridor and do keep in touch, when you can check out those airlocks, it'd be nice if they weren't operational.

The rest of you come with me. We'll check out the upper levels of the docking pylon and the ships we do have at our disposal.'

A combadge bleeped.

Mc Sorley looked at Marcus. 'It's you.'

He touched the device. 'Ohlson here.'

Devereaux's voice tumbled into the gathering. 'Have you arranged for the security details yet Commander?'

'Yes sir, the people have been allocated and briefed. We are about to take up our positions now.

Is Commander Shirer ready to leave?'

There was a slight delay before the reply was forthcoming. 'He will be approaching your current position at any moment.'

'Very good sir, you can tell him that Commander Mc Sorley will be ready to escort him and his people as far as the edge of the corridor.'

Another delay. 'Very good commander, over.'

Deborah sighed. 'Okay, Yeoman,' she addressed Kausler, 'you and Lieutenant d'Amatsu take up positions at the last pillar. Make sure Shirer and co. get that far without mishap. The rest of us will lead them to you.'

Kausler nodded once and then she was off. They could hear the small click as she activated the scope. Mico headed hurriedly after her.

'Here he comes.'

Ohlson turned to see where Deborah was looking. Twenty of the survivors of the Hawaii were coming in their direction. Shirer was in front.

'Good luck Marcus.'

Marcus nodded at Deborah and walked past Shirer, he nodded as they crossed, Shirer returned the greeting. They walked to the lift. Devereaux and Nilis were off to one side. They were deep in conversation and paid no heed to Ohlson's pose as they reached the lifts and pressed the call button.

Sia had scanned the armed group as they passed. He had been looking for one person in particular. He wasn't certain whether or not to be relieved when he didn't see her. She must have remained with the people that were now gathered to the side of the lift lobby. But he couldn't make her out. He brought his attention back to Ohlson's team.

The lift door opened. The Shoeman was docked on level one, the Augustus was on level three, level four was where the Caesar was, and level five the Gaunt.

They entered and Ohlson pushed the button marked as the top, the sixth level. I hope its empty, thought Colimo. He tensed and released his fingers, just to ready himself, just in case the sixth level was not empty.

'I have two people at the end of this corridor.' Mc Sorley was speaking, and she was unsure if Shirer was listening. 'They will ensure that you can get as far as that without fear of ambush.'

'Keep them there until we get back. And tell them not to be too nervous and try not to shoot us on our return.' He smiled to show he wasn't serious.

'Then you had better warn us that you will be coming back then, won't you?'

Shirer was finished with the small talk. 'Move out, two abreast as far as the last pillar, then split into five groups of four like I showed you.

Move into the tunnel in silence, and keep ten meters apart from the group in front - have you got that?'

Mc Sorley tapped Ben's shoulder. 'Led them in.'

The tall stately figure started into the corridor.

There were a few nods of heads from Shirer's patrol. Some were watching the black woman as she moved away from them. The nods seemed to satisfy Shirer.

'Move out.'

Two started the crouched walk into the dark tunnel after Ben, then another two followed.

Shirer was in the last group, Mc Sorley and T'sella stooped and went beside them as they headed towards Kausler and d'Amatsu.

It took them only a minute or so to reach the large collection of people that collected around the kneeling figure of Gretchen Kausler. The yeoman had her scoped rifle pointed into the direction that Shirer and his group intended going. d'Amatsu was nowhere to be seen.

'Where's d'Amatsu?'

'He's by the wall,' answered Kausler.

The answer satisfied Mc Sorley. 'Any movements Yeoman?'

Shirer looked angry that he hadn't been the one to ask that question.

'No, there has been no movement or sound coming from the corridor leading past the hub. But I'd bet there is at least one Jem'Hadar watching the approaches.'

Shirer looked like he was about to make a comment about Gretchen's remark, one glance at Mc Sorley's face made him hesitate.

'Very good,' Mc Sorley kept an eye on Shirer. 'Good luck Commander.'

Shirer didn't look like he knew how to react to the 'good luck', so he ignored it. 'Let's go, group one move out with me.' There was a shuffle as the five moved to the front of the group. 'Franklin,' Shirer addressed a lieutenant, 'you take up the rear and ensure that those moving behind us remain ten meters behind.'

'Yes sir.' Franklin was a young looking man wearing the beige of security or engineering.

Mc Sorley watched as the groups set off.

The lift doors opened. They were on the sixth floor.

Ohlson was out first, Sia and Colimo next. Those three searched and covered the immediate area. Barret and Smith headed directly to the airlock.

'Clear!' Sia was standing at the window to the left of the area outside the lifts.

'Clear!' echoed Colimo from the right side.

'Check the airlock.' Ohlson was in the middle keeping as much of his group visible at all times.

Smith and Barret had taken up positions on either side of the airlock controls, on hearing Ohlson's order they turned and removed the panels of the controls.

Alex Smith was the one who tapped into the computer linkage with the controls, he tapped his tricorder and watched as the data transferred to his device. 'It's clear, there's nothing docked here, nor has there been for thirty-one hours. A Jem'Hadar fighter,' he added to complete the story.

'Right everyone,' said Ohlson, 'back into the lifts, fifth floor.' They were going to the docking bay where the Gaunt was left. The lift doors closed behind them. Ohlson touched his combadge. 'Ohlson to Devereaux.'

There was no immediate response.

'Ohlson to Devereaux.'

'Devereaux here.'

'Sixth floor searched and checked, sir. We are progressing to the fifth.'

A pause. 'Keep me informed.' Nothing else.

Ohlson sighed, _this was going to be a difficult few hours_.

Mico d'Amatsu, half-Italian and half-Japanese junior lieutenant of the U.S.S. Augustus, knelt and watched the last of Shirer's people go out of his sight. He had watched the corridor and the debris therein, he had noticed the shadows that came from the right about thirty meters inside the corridor and he had watched Shirer led his people into that area. It was more than likely the next wing - the first of three - in the prison. He couldn't recall how many Jem'Hadar they had found to be there in their last sensor sweep. He didn't think it mattered, Shirer had led a mixed bunch. Some were technicians, one - he had heard her speaking about it - was an archeologist, the rest science officers and ship security. None where soldiers, all where trying hard to fill that job description.

He could do little to help them other than be at his position when they needed him, if they needed him.

'Kausler to Mc Sorley.'

Deborah resisted the urge to express surprise at the communication. 'Yes?'

'Permission to move further into the corridor to cover Commander Shirer's party?'

The voice of Captain John Devereaux cut into the discussion. 'Denied. Keep your positions.'

'Very good sir,' was the sole response to the instruction. It was impossible to tell from her voice how she gauged the wisdom of Devereaux's orders.

They were on the fifth level. Each had the same positions as they had on the floor above.

Smith checked. 'It's still here.' He looked back at Ohlson.

Marcus nodded at Sia.

'Gaunt this is Chief Engineer Singh, report.'

A momentary pause was all the indication they had that the Gaunt's computer was verifying the intrusion's propriety.

'Diagnostic check in progress, shield generators at sixty-three percent...'

'Has anyone attempted or actually boarded you since I left?' Sia's question interrupted what would have been a lengthy and boring report.

'Yes..'

'Who?' The computer's answer had been a surprise for Sia.

'You.'

He breathed a sigh of relief. Then he thought about what the computer had said. 'Computer how many times have I tried to gain access in the last twenty minutes?'

'Twice.'

Sia looked at Ohlson. 'Someone has tried to gain entry by pretending to be me.'

Marcus had come to the same conclusion. 'No use worrying about that for the time being, let's find out why that person wanted into the Gaunt.

Okay Lieutenant,' Ohlson addressed Smith. 'Open the airlock.'

There was a slight metallic clink as the doors opened. Then they were at the side entrance to the Gaunt.

'Take us in Lieutenant Singh.'

The tall Indian approached the door.

Mico blinked to give his eye something to do other than stare at a deeply shadowed and unmoving landscape.

'Scan it at irregular intervals,' the voice came from his combadge and belonged to Kausler, 'that'll allow the eye to keep busy and alert.'

Mico nodded. He believed she was behind him and would see his gesture of acknowledgment. He started scanning the area as Gretchen had suggested.

'I'm moving back a bit.' Kausler was speaking for Mc Sorley's benefit.

'What's she doing?' Mc Sorley whispered the question to T'sella.

The Vulcan was looking into the corridor's darkness with the aid of the scoped phaser rifle.

Mc Sorley waited.

'She's moving crouched, to the right.'

'The right?' Tambecki was staring into the corridor. She could make nothing out.

Mc Sorley was thinking. 'She's checking out the airlocks.'

'Yeoman?'

'Yes sir.' Came back Gretchen's steady voice.

'I'm sending Lieutenant Tambecki up to your position.' She left the rest unsaid. Kausler would know that Mc Sorley knew where Kausler's position was - heading to the storerooms and the dual set of small airlocks that they contained, and she was telling the Yeoman that backup was on its way.

'Go, cover her, and check out those airlocks. There were two single-man ones in the rooms where she is going. Tell her to take no risks, just in case Shirer's party needs us.'

Ben nodded and then she was stooped and walking into the gloom and towards where she believed Gretchen Kausler was to be found.

He tapped the console. The machine was busy and that made the operations sluggish.

'Is everything as you left it?'

Sia nodded in answer to Ohlson's question.

'Then let's get down to the Caesar.

Ohlson to Devereaux.'

There was no hesitation this time. 'Yes?'

'Level five is clear, sir.'

'Proceed to level four.'

'Yes sir, over.'

The group of five headed back to the lifts. Ohlson was wondering who had, or could have came up here to try to get on the Gaunt. He had an uneasy feeling about what the searches might uncover.

Mc Sorley had followed Ohlson's reports., they - Marcus and herself - had left several channels free. They monitored the one's that each had to Devereaux, and they had kept one channel for their own use. She used it.

'Mc Sorley here.'

'What is it Deborah?'

'Shirer is out of visual, I'm readying for incoming. And Gretchen and Ben are checking out the service airlocks to the right of the pylon base.'

As the lift doors opened on to level four and the Caesar, Ohlson suppressed a sigh. He had discussed with his first officer that Shirer, even knowing the information that the Augustus had gotten from the prison, would walk into a trap. The arrangement was that when that trap seemed close to being sprung they would stretch the orders given by Devereaux that little bit more, in order to keep as many of them alive as was possible. It would be safer for all if they weren't so spread out. His own party would be better positioned in the main corridor, or even behind Shirer, anywhere rather than stuck floors above the others in a large docking pylon.

They took up their allocated positions again. The sooner they checked the pylon the sooner they could get closer to the main group.

She was at the doors to the annex alongside the corridor and adjacent to the lifts when Ben joined her.

Kausler looked neither surprised nor annoyed at having Tambecki foisted on to her. She acknowledged Ben's arrival by indicating that she was about to open the doors and Ben should cover her.

Tambecki raised her rifle and waited.

Kausler had already checked - twice actually - that the tricorder was useless at penetrating the shielding in the walls. She held her weapon in her right hand and tapped the locking mechanism's panel with her left. No response.

She tapped the largest of the six coloured panels.

No response.

The second largest was at the bottom of the panels, she touched that one. There was a whirl and then the door slide open.

'Clear!' Sia was the last to acknowledge.

Ohlson scanned his troops, then nodded. Barret entered the codes and the airlock to the Caesar opened.

The room was dark. The ambient lighting had been cut here as in the rest of the complex by the Augustus' torpedo, but unlike elsewhere the room had not maintained the background lighting of work consoles.

Even with her eyes being accustomed to the dimness of the main area Tambecki squinted into the dark, she could make nothing out. She initiated the scope. The viewfinder blossomed into life, in the place of the dark a light green glow filled the room. It remained light, there was no life in the room. She raised her left hand and made a chopping motion in the room's direction.

Kausler entered with her scope already activated. She moved into the darkness quickly and quietly. She turned right and took up a defensive crouch to the side of the door. She scanned the room. It was empty. She beckoned Tambecki to follow her.

Ben was inside the room and scanning it inside of five seconds. The room was rectangular, lockers or cabinets of some sort lined the walls. Tambecki's scope had circumnavigated the room, Kausler was walking around looking for anything... She found it.

It took him only a few minutes to check the state of the old tanker. It was empty. Sia was at the console.

'No one has attempted to gain access to the ship or the computer.' Sia switched the console back to how he had found it.

'I wonder why they didn't try to get on to the Caesar?' No one answered the commander's question. They waited. Ohlson was at the exit. 'Okay let's see how level three and the Augustus are doing.'

The lockers were containers.. Each were locked electronically, Ben had not seen anything like it before. They were particularly heavy containers, she wondered what they could be concealing.

'They are genetic locks,' said Kausler. 'They react to whoever or whatever touches them.' She put her hand to the small handle on the side and pulled. Nothing happened. 'So it isn't programmed for human.' She thought for a moment. 'Wait here.' She walked from the room purposively.

Ben closed her eyes, she had a good idea of what was coming next. She hoped that Devereaux was busy.

He was, he was talking to Nilis and in the recess by the lifts. Mc Sorley had seen the two officers leave the main group to speak. Near by two others appeared to be in the process of removing panels from the flooring.

'What's she doing?'

T'sella's question brought her mind back to pillar. 'Explain?'

'Yeoman Kausler is walking up the corridor.'

'Is she coming here?'

'No, she is walking to where Lieutenant d'Amatsu is... No, she's not.' A pause. 'She's at the dead Jem'Hadar.

She is picking him up.'

Mc Sorley wondered had she been following T'sella's commentary correctly.

'She's going back where she came from.'

'With the body?'

'Yes.'

Mc Sorley choose not to ask any further questions, she knew that there'd be a good reason for Kausler's actions, she couldn't imagine what that reason would be, but... She hoped Gretchen would get back to her soon and tell her.

It was as Ben had suspected. Gretchen brought back the Jem'Hadar's body and used his limp and lifeless hand on the container lock. Nothing happened.

'So what we need now is a Vorta's hand.'

Ben looked at her colleague and wondered if Gretchen had a plan to go get one. She wouldn't have put the idea out of the reach of Kausler.

The Yeoman left the corpse where it was and continued the search. She found the airlock door in seconds. 'Kausler to Mc Sorley.'

'Mc Sorley here.'

'We've found an airlock.'

'Is it working?'

She tapped the activation panel. 'Yes, it is.'

'Can you lock it from your side?'

Tambecki was checking the mechanism. 'No, it's an emergency exit, it'll have an override command that can be activated from both sides.'

Mc Sorley deactivated her combadge and turned to T'sella. 'Go to them see if Kausler can booby-trap that door with the explosives she took from the dead Jem'Hadar? If she can tell her to do so.'

T'sella stood. 'Is Captain Devereaux or Commodore Nilis to be told?'

'No. Devereaux doesn't even know we have the explosives. Let's just put this down to us, and one of the measures we have utilized to ensure perimeter security.'

T'sella nodded then she was off and walking to Kausler and Tambecki's locations.

Mc Sorley looked over to the lifts. Devereaux had finished his discussion with Nilis, and he was walking towards her.

They had entered the Augustus with ease. He had followed Kausler and Mc Sorley's exchange and was wondering what Mc Sorley would do next. It was her call, he had no notion of interfering, she was an able officer. He was standing beside his captain's chair.

The initial check had verified what Ohlson had suspected. Someone had tried to get into the Augustus, worse than that, they had succeeded.

Sia checked Engineering, Ohlson had the notion that the engineer wanted to make certain no one had done anything to HIS ship since he had left. Barret checked the sensors and reported back that all was as it should be. Smith and Colimo remained outside to cover the others. The rest were wondering what the intruder had been about.

Ohlson had an idea, but it was not one he was going to share with the others just yet. He was about to vacate the ship when he had an idea. 'Computer, this is Commander Marcus Ohlson, clearance code gamma, gamma, zero, three nine theta. Reinitialize the sensors and the computer.'

There was the slightest of pauses and then the computer complied.

'How many Jem'Hadar ships are within sensor range?'

'Two.'

'Where and what are they?'

'Twenty-one and twenty thousand kilometers above the surface, two Jem'Hadar attack fighters.'

'No sign of the battleship,' he murmured to himself.

'No,' agreed the computer.

'Where are the Starfleet personnel in relation to the Dominion forces at the building?'

'Three hundred and ten meters, eighty meters, twenty-one meters...'

Close, that was the three wings and their troop complements, but how could he warn Shirer?

'And,' continued the computer, 'six meters.'

'Six?' He was thrown off his train of thought momentarily. 'Four groups of Jem'Hadar in the prison.'

'Correction, ' answered the computer to Ohlson's pondering. 'Three groups of Jem'Hadar are inside the prison, one is outside.'

_Outside?_ 'Where is the outside group? and what is their distance from Starfleet personnel?'

'At the entrance to the emergency airlock, six meters.'

He banged his combadge. 'Come in Kausler this is Ohlson.'

T'sella had reached Kausler and informed her of Mc Sorley's order. Gretchen was putting the charge inside the panel of the airlock controls when Ohlson's voice interrupted her. 'Kausler here.'

'Gretchen, you have visitors waiting outside to come in.'

The woman stopped for a few seconds as she took in the import of what her commander was saying. 'Thank you Commander.'

She had yet to commence the activation of the device.

Another voice came from the badge. 'This is Devereaux, what the hell is going on there?'

He was standing beside Mc Sorley a vein at his temple throbbed from anger. He turned from looking into the gloom to Mc Sorley. 'You tell me?'

'I-er.'

Gretchen's voice came clearly from the badge. 'Kausler here Captain, we have found some crates and cannot open them. They appear to be genetically locked and don't respond to human, or Jem'Hadar...'

'Or Vulcan,' piped in T'sella from behind Kausler.

'What has that got to do with Ohlson's message?'

The Yeoman continued. 'We were to examine each crate, but now - from Commander Ohlson's orders - we have to return to ensure that Commander Shirer's return is guarded. Commander Shirer's people are 'the visitors'. It's in case the Dominion is able to listen to our communications. He- the commander - has been timing us.' She paused. 'We're on our way.'

Devereaux was puzzled, how would the yeoman know the locks didn't respond to Jem'Hadar genes? He was distracted as Shirer made a report. All was well, so far.

Tambecki was looking at T'sella. 'Impressive.'

'Most inventive,' agreed the Vulcan.

'That,' said Mc Sorley, 'was what I was going to say.' Silently, she wondered at the resourcefulness of Kausler, and the audacity of the woman. She was grateful that they were on the same side.

Devereaux was trying, with some success, to get rid of his temper. 'Have one of the crates brought to me. I'll be with Commodore Nilis at the lifts.'

'Yes sir.'

The captain marched off. Mc Sorley bet that he wasn't certain about whether or not to believe what he had heard. But what other course of action was open to him but act as if it mattered not.

He was at the lift. 'Mc Sorley here, can you carry one of the crates back?'

'Yes,' it was Kausler who answered.

'Do so, the captain wants to see one.'

Tambecki and T'sella carried it between them. When they left the room Kausler resumed working on the bomb.

Ohlson had the Augustus locked out and vacated in under three minutes. The rest were in the lift waiting. He went to the window overlooking the side of the building where the airlock was. He looked down.

It was dark, shadows from the complex's lights threw long and deep shadows over the gray environment.

He could make out nothing. It didn't help that part of the pylon itself obscured the area immediately in front of the airlock. He was about to return to the others when a movement caught his eye.

It wasn't near the airlock, or even on the ground. It was small, it moved slowly and then it was out of sight.

He stood looking into the dim outside for a few more seconds, then he turned and slowly walked to the lift. If someone was outside then they would be more able to see him than he would be to see them. And he had no wish for them to suspect that he had seen a Dominion shuttlecraft landing. It wasn't further than a kilometer, but he did know that such a vehicle would be capable of carrying up to thirty people.

He thought it safe to assume that the only ship capable of using shuttlecrafts in the area was the battleship. It would seem that the Dominion was sending troops from the battleship to ready for an assault on the station.

He tapped his combadge and opened the private channel he had with Mc Sorley.

'Mc Sorley here.'

'Prepare our people, the Dominion have landed troops outside and they are at the airlock where Gretchen is, I'd say an attack is imminent.'

There was a pause as she digested the news. 'What do we tell Devereaux and Nilis?'

'I'd guess at least one of them already knows, but I'll be telling him as soon as we finish that I've seen a Dominion shuttlecraft land near by, and that I believe they are preparing to come by way of the airlock. Probably have it coordinated with the troops still in the building to have a two-pronged assault. Anyway, ' he added, 'just make sure our people are ready.'

Mc Sorley looked at where 'our people' had gone. She'd have to wait until Ohlson told Devereaux before she could act on the information. 'Looks like you were correct, as soon as we split up they would attack.'

There was no reason for Ohlson to reply, being correct on this occasion gave him no pleasure.

Ohlson had finished reporting his sightings and beliefs to Devereaux.

'A Dominion shuttle?'

'Yes sir.'

'Okay Commander, keep your position and continue with the search, over.'

Colimo shook his head. They were still in the lift. The doors opened. They took up their positions outside level two. There was no ship docked here, Sia looked out into the gray and dusty moon, he could see nothing of note. On the opposite side of the room, Ohlson scanned for movement. There was none, or at least none that registered with him. He gave the signal to return to the lift, they still had the Shoeman to search.

'Mc Sorley to Tambecki.'

'Yes?'

'Move back to your original positions as soon as you can.'

Ben looked at the others. 'Why does she sound like there's more to tell?' Her and T'sella were out of the room and turning to face Mc Sorley's position. The container was heavy but manageable.

In the room, and alone, Kausler was having trouble connecting the bomb's arming mechanism to the airlock's. She was about to try it again, when she heard a noise.

She froze for a second, then the bomb was ignored and the rifle was in her arms. There was the sound again. It was coming from the airlock.

Kausler edged over to the solid door and waited. It was unmistakable.

The outside entrance to the airlock was being opened, slowly. Gretchen had heard the messages exchanged between Mc Sorley and Tambecki, she knew now what it was that the lieutenant-commander wanted to tell them.

She grabbed another of the explosive devices from her bag. She would only have a few moments before the airlock was opened and she would be facing heavily armed Dominion troops or the vacuum of space. She had no wish to face any of those just yet.

What she had in mind would only take a few seconds to do, she started tapping at the bomb's control panel.

They were around the airlock leading to the Shoeman.

Smith and Barret bypassed the lock and the airlock opened. The door to the Shoeman was closed.

Barret tapped the locking mechanism.

Ohlson was watching Colimo, the Bolian was at the large window overlooking the side of the building nearest the airlocks. He made no signal to say that he saw anything. Marcus heard Barret put in the 'open' command for the second time. He glanced to where the ensign was.

She looked puzzled.

'What is it?'

'It's jammed, it won't open.'

Ohlson was beside her. She tapped in the correct codes. Nothing happened.

Marcus took over. Instead of instructing the door to open, he initiated the ship's computer. He got a vocal response. 'You have no clearance for this system.' The voice was the computer's.

'I don't understand this...' Ensign Barret genuinely looked nonplused.

'I do,' Ohlson looked at the closed door. 'I don't know how, but Captain Lu and the unknown ensign would appear to have escaped their confines and are in control of the Shoeman.'

'Captain Lu?' Barret did still not fully comprehend. Then the penny dropped. 'Oh.' She took a step back and unshouldered her weapon. 'What will we do sir?'

Ohlson had been wondering the same thing. He was also wondering how they had escaped, there was no way they could have escaped unaided. _Okay, so how to neutralize the threat from the Shoeman?_

It was then that the Dominion started their attack.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

The attack was not two-pronged as Ohlson had speculated, it was three-pronged.

The first attack was on Commander Shirer's expedition; the second and third was on the main corridor where the majority of the Starfleet personnel were sited. One of the prongs came from the wings adjacent to the wind Shirer was searching, the other was through the airlocks.

Shirer had been halfway up the length of the wing. It had been long, and dark, the only light was the light that they had brought with them. The wing was tall, and comprised of three floors each served with a gangway reached by one of the three stairways along the length of the wing. One of Shirer's groups was on the uppermost levels, one on the middle and one on the bottom. The fourth group had been utilized differently.

As they had entered the wing, Shirer kept the groups spread some meters apart, but each visible to the other. It had been at this point that he had spread them out and upward.

The idea that each was visible to the other was hitting a problem. The problem was one of limited illumination. But they had came half the length, and had searched all the rooms - communal cells, by the look of them - along each of the sides and found nothing.

He had been growing concerned at this lack of substance to report but had called back twice to notify the captain that they were still in one piece.

To those that did not know him, Shirer may have sounded confident and cocky, but he was very able, and very aware of the lack of military training in the teams with him. He was no gung-ho novice, nor a lackey seeking to suck up to his superiors by taking unnecessary risks.

He had been expecting some resistance before they reached the end of the wing, he knew that there were Jem'Hadar here. For just such an eventuality he had split up one of the groups and sent the four excluding himself in various directions to reconnoiter as well as cover any attack.

One of those he had sent was an Ensign Domenski. She had been assigned to the bridge of the Hawaii as a helmsman, now she was supposed to be ten to twenty meters ahead of them on the ground level, but she wasn't answering his communications signal. He had arranged that each of the five had a code comprising, a dot (one tap) or a dash (a momentary held combadge), Domenski's was 'dash-dot.' When he inputted his code and asked for 'dash-dash-dot' she was to ignore the final signal and return her own if all was well. She was not responding and her commander was getting worried.

'Shall we continue?' Lieutenant Gary Trainer was looking back from the group that Shirer had halted.

'No, not yet.' He tapped in a dot and a dash, for Lieutenant Hans Jaedener, who should be on level one above where Domenski was supposed to be. _Perhaps he knew what had happened to her._

He did.

Jaedener heard the code and waited. He was scanning the first level from a position fifteen meters ahead of the main group. He saw nothing of note, then he scanned the level above, then the one below.

He almost missed the movement it was so subtle. But no matter how subtle it was it was betrayed by the glint of the phaser. The phaser was on the ground. Jaedener felt his blood go cold. The phaser was still in the hand of Ensign Domenski, above her something moved. The figure was still well shaded but the cooling body of Ensign Domenski lying at its feet betrayed its presence. He concentrated on the shadow, he increased the level of illumination that his scope used. It had the effect of increasing what he saw but adversely decreased the definition. But definition did not matter, he was now clearly able to see the figure of a Jem'Hadar soldier and that soldier was aiming a rifle at where Commander Shirer's group would be.

A better trained soldier than Jaedener would have waited and reported. That soldier's delay would have cost an unknown number of lives.

Jaedener fired.

The Jem'Hadar soldier that had slit the throat of Ensign Valerie Domenski died as the energy pulse fried his chest. The twenty other Jem'Hadar and Vorta that were readying for their part in the retaking of the prison responded.

The Starfleet personnel on the upper levels were hit from three sites, they lost two before they had taken cover.

The five, plus two scouts, on the second level were firing at the various shadows that was the only sign of the enemy who was not fully in position, before the Dominion troops got to return the fire.

Jaedener's actions caused only the most minor of pauses before Shirer had his five behind the second set of stairs and returning fire.

'Shirer to Devereaux, we have encountered the enemy, and we have taken casualties.' With that he turned and aimed his phaser into the depths of the dark prison wing and concentrated. A pulse of disruptor left close to where the center of his vision was, it slammed somewhere to his left. He moved his aim.

Another blast from the disruptor, Shirer fired at the shooter.

Mc Sorley heard the shooting as she spied the approaching figures of Tambecki and T'sella. She reacted immediately. 'Leave the box, take up positions on either side of the corridor leading to where Shirer went.'

Tambecki was over and kneeling at the place where Kausler had shot the infiltrator earlier. T'sella took up a position to the right and behind the kneeling d'Amatsu.

Mc Sorley turned to glance in the direction of Devereaux as Shirer made his report. The shooting was having an unsettling effect on these near the lifts. The volume of the murmurs was increasing and there were a couple of them walking part of the way towards the corridor. Someone walked into the right of Mc Sorley's view, it was a tall person. She didn't think much about it for a moment, then she frowned and looked back at the group.

The light was bad, she couldn't be certain who the arrival had been. She glanced at where the figure had came. They had either walked from the darkened corner of the lift area - where Mc Sorley could see no one at this time - or, her head turned a little more, they came from the service ladder.

'Mc Sorley to Ohlson, come in.'

They had given up any chance of bypassing the controls to gain entrance to the Shoeman. Lu's command codes would be more than adequate at locking everyone else out short of blowing a hole through the door. That notion had occurred to Ohlson, but would take too long and involve bringing Devereaux and Nilis into the equation. 'Back to the lift, Sia you and Barret take the level were the Augustus is, Smith and Colimo take level two, I'll stay here...'

'What's that?' Colimo's head was tilted ever so slightly as he strained to listen.

They all heard it.

'Shooting, the attack's started.' Smith looked anxiously at Ohlson.

'It's too far away to be the airlock, must be Shirer's people.' Marcus looked back at the doors to the Shoeman, he was calculating how much of a danger Lu and the ensign would pose as they now had control of a ship. A ship with damaged propulsion, all its weapons and transporters.

'Sia can we disable its transporters?'

'They aren't usable with all the force fields generated by the ships' shields over this section of the prison.'

'I know that, but can we disable them anyway?'

The engineer though for a moment. 'Not from here, but the Augustus could target its power grid from close range,' he pointed upwards, close range meant the thirty or so meters that separated the two docked vessels, 'with phasers.

It might damage the Augustus and the docking pylon too.'

'Okay I'll take Ensign Barret, and do it.' He turned to the other two. 'You can't stay here, so go with Sia give them cover.'

Then Mc Sorley's message came through.

'Someone has just came out of the service area, do you know anything about it?'

'No, did you recognize who it was?'

'Yes, I think I do know who was up there. Do you have any idea of what they were doing?' They were speaking over the secure link. Mc Sorley was keeping her back to Devereaux's position she didn't want him to she her talking and he not being able to hear her.

There was a sigh and then Ohlson answered. 'That explains how Lu and his friend are free.'

'Free?'

'Yes, they have control of the Shoeman.'

'Shoeman? But I thought they were on the Augustus?'

'I moved them.'

'To the Shoeman?'

'Whoever came this way checked the Gaunt and the Augustus, they even managed to gain entrance to the Augustus.

My belief is that they suspected Lu was there and then tried the Gaunt, finally realizing that the Shoeman would be the ideal hiding place, unless you had insider information.'

'What do you mean?'

'It's obvious, it was no Jem'Hadar who came up and freed Lu. It was Nilis wasn't it?'

Mc Sorley looked around, Devereaux was moving the others back to the lifts. 'Yes,' she answered Ohlson's question, 'I'd put money on it that the figure was hers, but why?'

Before he could reply, Ohlson's combadge bleeped to report that someone else was trying to get through. He tapped it. 'Ohlson here.'

'Devereaux here Ohlson, I'm having trouble getting much information from Commander Shirer, I do know they have suffered some casualties but seem to be holding their positions. Take your squad from the lifts and go and reinforce the commander. Keep me informed.'

Mc Sorley had been listening. 'We have the area in front of where Shirer went covered.' It was all she could say in support.

Ohlson turned to Singh, Smith and Colimo. 'You two go straight to Mc Sorley and get instructs, I'll go to the Augustus.

If anyone asks tell them we are taking up the rear, which is true.'

The three men nodded.

The trio headed for the lifts. The doors had only closed behind them when an explosion rocked everything.

Mc Sorley had been checking what her four where doing when she wondered what had became of Yeoman Kausler. She looked in the direction of the room that led to the airlock.. Then d'Amatsu opened fire.

Mico had been scanning the region in front of where Shirer had went, he was nervous about shooting in case he hit someone that was fleeing the Dominion attack. That was the reason he delayed firing at the silhouetted figure that inched in his direction. What are you? he thought. Then he saw what it was, it was one... No two... Then he saw the tiny motion among the shadows... There was a lot of them, and they were all Jem'Hadar. He aimed at the center of the shadow of the one he had seen first, then he pulled the trigger.

Tambecki had seen what was coming too. Inside three seconds she and T'sella added to the multitude of pulses that beat into the approaching troops. It was next to impossible to make out what damage the shots were doing, not yet, not until they would be able to walk up and count the bodies. If they would survive the encounter. A section of the wall to Ben's right sparked and a small piece of the console tore a line across her left hand. She didn't feel it, she didn't even feel the rivulet of blood that trickled to her wrist. She fired again... And again.

Kausler was backing out the door, she was almost there when the airlock opened. There was a hiss as the pressure equalized then a large and well-armed figure emerged from the airlock. It was a Jem'Hadar soldier, with a disruptor. He hadn't seen Kausler dive behind the crate nearest the door leading to the corridor.

The door was still open, sounds of fighting were coming from it. The soldier looked pleased and turned to beckon the next soldier into the room.

The airlock could accommodate two at a time, Kausler had no time to lose and no options. She rose from her position and dived through the door. A disruptor blast flashed centimeters from her leg.

She rose as quickly as she could and used her right hand to slap the control panel to close the door. It started to close, another blast came from the duo of soldiers inside the room. One of the blasts slammed into the toughened metal of the door, it wouldn't even leave a scratch. The second of the blasts hit the corner of the door, the beam split and careered in several directions, one of them hit Kausler. She felt the blow, it was like being hit by a fast moving steel door, and then she was meters away.

She rose painfully.

She had been lucky, but her phaser rifle had not. The weapon was useless, part of the blast had hit the main body of the rifle and crushed the mechanism.

Kausler threw the rifle to one side. She felt weak, a hand reached for her arm and pulled her upright, it was Mc Sorley's.

The lieutenant-commander looked worried. 'Are you all right?'

'Bruised and dented, but apart from unarmed I'm fine.'

'What happened?'

'They are coming through the airlock, they have environment suits. They will be from the battleship.'

Mc Sorley looked at the door, behind the two women the fire from the other Augustus' crew was loud and regular. 'How long until they get through?'

'They won't.'

'How can you say that?'

Kausler looked unworried. 'They'll be dead in a couple of minutes.'

'The ones who are in the room?'

She nodded.

'How?'

'There's a bomb timed to go off in,' she glanced at her watch, 'two and a half minutes.' She glanced at the door. 'Actually two bombs.'

'Two?'

'Yes, I couldn't get one of them connected to the airlock controls in time so I rigged a timer and threw it into the panel with the other one.'

Mc Sorley ducked as some disruptor fire came closer to the duo. She stayed beside Kausler as they mad e their way to cover. She noticed the yeoman took her time and was careful when she walked, but she didn't limp and there was no sign of bleeding.

They had reached the area behind Tambecki and settled down, Mc Sorley to fire into the coming shadows, and Kausler to look at her watch.

'Now!'

Gretchen's announcement came only a second before the explosion.

Mc Sorley knew it was an explosion, but it only sounded like a muffled crash. There was no smoke, no other noise... Nothing to indicate that anything had happened.

'We won't be able to use that room again,' was all that the bomber said.

Ohlson and Barret had arrived on level three and the Augustus without incident.

Barret was over opening the door. Ohlson wasted no time, he was beside her, there seemed little to gain from splitting up and giving each other security. There were only two of them, any attack would probably overwhelm them, and any blasts at the pylon might kill them... It didn't matter if they were at the airlock or kneeling with their rifles aimed at the time.

The door whooshed open.

They were back inside the Augustus. 'Take Tactical.'

Barret took the station as she had been told.

Ohlson was in the captain's chair. He moved the small panel that was attached to the chair's right arm so he could get a better look at the readouts, when they came. 'Computer, this is Commander Marcus Ohlson, gamma, gamma, zero, three nine, theta. Reinitialize weapons and sensors.

Set the viewscreen to show below us.'

The lights brightened slightly as the viewscreen turned itself on and the console glowed as they were activated.

In the viewscreen they could see the sleek lines of the U.S.S. Shoeman, on paper it was a better ship than the Augustus was. It had heavier armaments, more phasers, it was faster, and could carry more. The Augustus was smaller, thinner, more agile, and had the extra torpedoes. At this range torpedoes would be useless, they would destroy both ships and a godly section of the docking pylon.

_Anyway_, thought Ohlson, _the ship's better qualities was only on paper. Here's where we find out for sure.'_

He read the sensors. 'Three life signs on the Shoeman, one Vorta and two humans,.'

'So much for the prisoner dying in custody, it also explains the ease with which the locking codes were overcome.' Ohlson's fingers played a tune on the captain's armrest.

'They seem to be doing nothing but waiting. Their shields are up, eighty percent, the weapons array isn't active yet.'

'Target the sensors and shield generator, use phasers.'

'Ready!' Hope Barret had already aimed the weapons and powered them.

Ohlson watched as the readings from the Shoeman changed. 'They know we're here.'

'They are powering their weapons.'

'Fire when ready.'

Barret did. The twin pulses of concentrated phaser fire slammed into the Shoeman only meters below the Augustus.

Ohlson held on as the buffeting subsided. He glanced at the console. 'Again.'

Barret fired again.

'Shields at fifty-five percent, weapons unaffected. Keep firing.'

The buffeting continued. The shudders threatened to unseat her but she gripped on with determination. It took a lot of concentration to aim while the ship juddered so violently. She released another pulse. It crashed into the heavily rocking ship below, she could see a shower of sparks come from the fuselage.

'Shields are almost gone, brace for incoming.'

'Incoming?'

The incoming was a blast of phasers into the Augustus' underbelly. Ohlson fell to the ground and banged his head into the seat he had been evicted from.

Barret could make out little from the viewscreen, the movements were merging into blurs. She fired again, and again.

Another blast hit the Augustus. Barret was thumped sideward into the console. She was momentarily winded. There was a pause. Behind her Ohlson was struggling into the chair.

He looked at the console. 'They've lost shields, weapons are still on-line. They must be dazed. Fire again, target the phasers. and propulsion.'

Hope adjusted the target settings as rapidly as she could then fired.

This time the shudder was a lot less than the previous one. 'Again.'

Another shot and then a calmness.

'They've lost weapons, it looks like there primary power has been disabled too. That'll put transporters off-line, good shooting ensign. Engines are down too, I'd guess they've lost thrusters.' Another check. 'They're still alive, but one is unconscious a human, nothing terminal. We'll leave them for a while.' He stood and moved his armrest console. then he saw Hope struggling out of the chair. 'Are you all right Ensign?'

'Fine sir, just winded.'

Marcus helped her from the chair and grabbed his tricorder. He scanned the protesting girl. 'A bit more than winded, you've a broken rib.' He removed his rucksack and rummaged around inside it for a while. He found what it was he was seeking and then emerged with a roll of tape and a hyposyringe. 'A binding and a painkiller is all I can offer for the time being.'

'Sounds good,' huffed the ensign.

It took him less than three minutes to remove her jacket and wrap the tape around the flinching Barret's service issue vest and then administer the drug.

'Why didn't you give the drug first?'

Ohlson smiled. 'It was either because I'm a sadist, or that I wanted you fully aware so that I didn't wrap the wrong rib.'

'Oh.' She lowered her arms.. The pain was receding. She put one arm into her jacket, it didn't hurt as much as she expected. The other arm went into its sleeve with even fewer twinges. 'I'm okay. Will you be telling Devereaux about the Vorta?'

'No, it wouldn't do any good, not yet.'

'Then, what do we do now?'

'Firstly, I'm going to see what damage we caused this ship.' He was tapping the instructions for the ship's damage estimation program. When he had received that he frowned, he tapped some more to verify what the estimation had told him.

'What's the news?'

'Mixed,' he said, 'all the primary functions are find, engine, shields and weapons...'

'I hear a 'but'.'

'Yes, we've burnt out the transporters., and all but internal communications.' He looked back at the ensign. 'Now we do the other thing.'

'What's that?' asked Barret.

Report to the others.' Ohlson was standing, he'd put the medical equipment away and was slinging the rucksack back over his shoulder. 'And try to avoid Devereaux.'

'Franklin.'

The lieutenant in question tapped his combadge. 'Here sir.'

'Report?'

'Two dead, one wounded - not seriously. I have reason to believe that P'feula,' he named the Vulcan who had been one of Shirer's two outriders on the top floor, 'is fine, he's firing at someone sporadically ahead of my position.' Franklin had already reported the other member of Shirer's team as missing.

We are stuck behind the central stairway's pillar, but I think the attack was blunted.

I've no idea of how many attacked, but we've hit three or four, over.'

'Good,' responded Shirer. Franklin's was the last report in from his people. In total out of the twenty who had entered the block, six were dead, eight injured, and three unaccounted for, including Domenski, of the three that were uninjured he was one of them. It did appear that they had repelled the assault. Now for the tricky part, getting everyone still alive back to the lifts without incurring further fatalities. He had already dismissed the notion of continuing along the block in search of communications posts or weapons. Jaedener had informed him that at least two of the attackers that survived were sited in front of them. 'Lieutenant Franklin, start evacuating your people to the end of the block, do not attempt to enter the corridor. You would only get hit in the crossfire. Remember to take the weapons from the dead.

The rest of us will give you as much cover as we can.'

'Very good sir.'

He tapped his combadge to get P'feula's attention. The Vulcan responded.

'Leave with Lieutenant Franklin.'

'Yes sir.' That was all.

Shirer looked around him. The firing had subsided. The enemy seemed to be in as bad, if not worse condition than the Starfleet people. He saw the body of Gary Trainer lying where it had fallen. Gary was the only confirmed death on this level, although Shirer suspected that all three of the missing were dead. One had gone from each of the levels, and they were all the scouts that Shirer had posted ahead.

'Shirer to Baker.'

'Baker here.' The speaker was a small blonde who was whispering into her combadge as she squinted into the darkness ahead on the first level. Her leg hurt, but then having it singed by a disruptor probably explained that.

'We'll stay in position until Franklin reports that he is at the entrance, then we'll cover your retreat.'

'Very good sir.' She thought she saw a shadow flicker, it could have been a trick of her eyes after all the flashes and thumps. She fired at it anyway.

Sia, Smith and Colimo had arrived at the base of the lifts without further incident. The tall Indian searched about him and saw that Devereaux only gave the group a cursory glance. He waited until the captain's attention was brought back to the discussion he was having with a medic - they seemed to be talking into a combadge to a third party - then Sia told the rest to move quickly to Mc Sorley.

They half ran and half walked into the dimmer section of the area, hoping that Devereaux, if he were to look, would be unable to determine how many were in the group.

They made it to Mc Sorley in under a minute.

Kausler was restless, she didn't feel the most useful after losing her rifle. And it wasn't as if she could just go and pick one up.

Mico was taking it steady. He fired only when he knew he could hit something, and that had been often enough to make him worry that his phaser was not too far from being depleted. He scanned ahead, there had been little movement for the last few minutes. 'They must know that Shirer is going to try to get back.'

T'sella was still a few centimeters behind him. 'That would be the logical time to attack. Shirer would in effect block us from defending his retreat.'

'Oh,' put in the engineer, 'remind me to tell you of my plan to get us out of here.'

T'sella probably raised an eyebrow, but if she did there was no one about to see it.

'Where would you like us to go?' Sia was kneeling alongside Mc Sorley.

'One of you go to d'Amatsu and T'sella, see if they need relief.

One, go and check the room with the airlock,' she turned to the restless Kausler,' you go too. Make me happy and tell me we're safe from attacks from that quarter.'

'And the last?' asked Sia.

'You can stay and keep me company.'

The Chief Engineer smiled then turned to the others. 'Lieutenant Smith, go with the Yeoman.'

Alex Smith was up and waiting for Gretchen to follow.

'Colimo, you see the others.'

The Bolian was away. He settled beside T'sella and whispered to her that he was there if anyone needed a break. No one did, but the Chief stayed where he was.

Sia moved further into the limited cover that was available.

'Where is he, or don't I want to know?'

'They went to cripple the Shoeman.'

Mc Sorley sighed. 'I knew that I didn't want to know.' She looked beyond Sia. Things were not looking better for it. Devereaux was approaching them.

Kausler and Smith were at the now closed door to the airlock. Smith listened, there was no sound.

'There will be nothing to hear,' pointed out Kausler.

'What exactly did you do?'

She gave a small shrug. 'Probably, fractured the airlock and opened the room to the outside, and the blast would have killed those inside the room as well as those entering. It may have shredded a few environment suits and would certainly have destroyed or damaged whatever was in those crates.' She seemed more thoughtful. 'The crates,' she was looking around them, 'where did they leave the container?'

The lift door opened. Ohlson took a look around before walking out with Ensign Barret. He could not see Devereaux. Then he caught the movement of the tall figure about ten meters away. She was kneeling beside two others, and they had what appeared to be a floor panel off.

He turned and headed in the direction he had last known Mc Sorley to be. Nilis went back to whatever she was doing at the open floor panel.

'Sir?'

Ohlson stopped as Mico d'Amatsu neared him. 'Aren't you supposed to be somewhere Lieutenant?'

'Yes sir, over there,' indicated his position, 'but T'sella suggested I tell you my plan as soon as I can?'

'Did she?'

'Yes sir.'

He glanced at the gathering around Devereaux, he wouldn't like to be kept waiting. 'Go ahead lieutenant tell me your plan.'

He arrived in time to hear Devereaux start his talk with Mc Sorley. The captain stopped as he saw the commander and ensign approach. 'Anything to report Commander?'

Ohlson knelt alongside Sia. Barret went to the other side of Devereaux. She pointed her rifle into the gloom

'All the vessels are in place and there is - as yet - no sign of the Jem'Hadar making a foothold in the pylon.'

The captain nodded. He seemed to be wondering whether or not to question Ohlson then he put it to one side. 'Shirer is coming out, I need for some people to get to the other side of the corridor and give them cover.

Before we work on that I have another announcement. We have a way to signal Starfleet, perhaps even initiate two-way communications.' He paused to let the import of that sink in. 'We have uncovered a conduit attached to the bases computer, and we've been able to tap into it. We can listen, and we can use it to send a message.

We only need time.'

'Excuse me sir.' Mc Sorley was the one who interrupted.

'What is it Commander?'

'If you were listening, didn't you get any messages concerning the attack?'

Devereaux shuffled a little. 'No, the messages we've been tapping seem to be about supplying this garrison, and with maneuverings of the two ships above us...'

'Two?'

Devereaux was now looking at Ohlson.

'There's three sir. We detected them prior to landing here. The two fighters would still be about, but the attempt to get in through the airlock tells us that the battleship is still out there too.' He paused. 'I think they know you're listening.

Whose idea was it to use the conduit?'

'Why would that matter?'

'Probably doesn't sir, I just wondered.'

Devereaux seemed to be annoyed but not wishing to show it. He was still thinking.

Mc Sorley shot Ohlson a look, it was obvious to him that she thought he had said too much.

'Shirer to Devereaux, come in.' The voice came from Devereaux's combadge. He tapped it once in answer.

'Devereaux here, what is it Lieutenant?'

Shirer's voice was low, Ohlson and Mc Sorley had to strain to hear what was being said. 'We are all at the entrance to this block, they do not appear to be following, but I am awaiting instructions.

I have six dead and eight injured, two seriously, six able-bodied.' He stopped.

Ohlson looked into the corridor that the lieutenant would have to bring the injured. 'I have an idea Captain.'

Shirer was sitting down beside an injured ensign, her arm was mangled by the look of it. He glanced back into the gloom. Nothing stirred, he hoped that meant they had given the Dominion troops a bloody enough nose to deter them. He checked his phaser, just in the eventuality that he was indulging in wishful thinking. _Where was Devereaux?_

'Devereaux to Shirer?'

'Here sir.'

'You'll have to wait a while longer lieutenant, but help is on its way.'

Smith had the container and between them Kausler and he had moved it into the midst of the main hall.

'Can you open it?'

Smith scratched his head. 'Titanium shielded tungsten carbon alloy, probably two or three centimeters thick, with a genetically coded lock. Made to withstand vacuum travel, heat of one thousand degrees Celsius, and indirect blast...' He checked his rifle, 'sure I can open it.' He aimed and fired a pulse of phaser into the locking mechanism.

There was a shower of sparks and a rattle as something whizzed away into the hall.

Kausler waved the smoke away and looked down. The lid was closed but the lock was in pieces. She bent and pulled at the lid. It was hot. She kicked the lid upward, it opened.

They looked down.

'How many of these crates did you say they had in that room?' asked Smith.

'I'd guess around a hundred.' She knelt and picked up a singed and smoking black and red Starfleet uniform. It had, she noticed, a regulation combadge attached.

'Can't say that I think of an innocuous reason for the Dominion to have a large supply of standard issue Starfleet uniforms.'

Gretchen nodded in agreement. 'Not counting that they have, or thought they had, the Shoeman and the Hawaii as well.'

Smith lifted the top uniform, there was another below it. It even had rank insignia, a junior lieutenant's in the case of the one he held. _That's my rank,_ he thought.

'They are stuck in that block because the Dominion have the next two that look down this corridor and means they have to walk in the line of fire to get back here, We have eight environment suits, and the docking pylon. I suggest we send eight outside and around the back of the two blocks above the one Shirer is in, we go in and attack them from the rear.

That should allow Shirer to get his people out and even add to the firepower against the troops still at this end of the building.

By our intelligence there are eleven in the furthest block and fourteen in the middle, and that's not counting the few we've killed when they attacked.'

'What about the battleship and the landing parties?' Devereaux seemed interested if not enthusiastic.

'The longer we wait the more likely it is that they will reinforce the blocks, but we have the element of surprise.' He paused. It seemed that Devereaux was going to go along with his idea. 'There is more sir.'

'What would the more be?'

'One of my people has came up with a plan to escape.'

'Escape the prison?'

'No, to escape the Dominion blockade.'

That quieted him.

'Would you like to hear it sir?'

Devereaux nodded, so too, he noticed, did Sia and Mc Sorley.

'I suggest that during the operation that Commodore Nilis be kept in charge of monitoring the signal traffic and perhaps thinking up misinformation to supply.'

Devereaux kept his face straight. 'I think that could be arranged. How tell me about this plan?'

It took fifteen minutes to organize everyone. The eight environment suits had been donned by Ohlson, Singh, Smith, Barret, T'sella, Tambecki, and two of the Hawaii's old crew an ensign named Coles, and a lieutenant named Brisset. The Hawaii personnel were unarmed, and were to stay behind the others until that condition was remedied. Mc Sorley, d'Amatsu, Colimo and Kausler were to stay where they were to give some protection to Shirer if Ohlson's operation failed. And, although it was not said, to implement d'Amatsu's plan if the others perished or where captured.

Devereaux had already visited Nilis, and on his return had announced that the Commodore was working on a scheme to tap into the personal communications device of the troops in the blocks to see if Shirer could make a break for it.

'The commodore has been told that you are going out to sabotage the communications array that links the troops here to the ships above,' he shrugged, 'I suppose if you found the array and did notice that it was vulnerable then you could attack it. But that is not your prime objective.'

So, Ohlson thought, 'he has came down on the side of those who believe the commodore to be a spy, and he is telling them to go ahead. I wonder what he intends doing to Nilis if the second part of the plan gets started? 'Very good sir, we'll start now and maintain radio silence, when the shooting starts and we are able I will be in contact.

The captain nodded. 'Good luck Augustus.' With that he was gone.

'Good luck from us too.' Mc Sorley was looking the most nervous of all those present.

'See you soon.' He turned and led the others to the lifts. They're route to the moon's surface was via the ships that were docked there.

Mc Sorley disliked this part of any operation the most, the waiting. She settled down to make the most of it, she'd give him ten minutes then do the rounds and make sure the remainder of Augustus' crew were ready.

The eight had reached the lifts. They entered, Ohlson tapped the panel and the doors closed.

'Which ship will we go out by?' Sia was adjusting his rifle.

'Ours, oh and,' he turned to ensure that Coles and Brisset could not hear him, 'we will be taking the Augustus with us.'

Sia stared at his commander. The plan as he had heard it was to unlock the docking clamps and lower the ship to the surface and then disembark. The Augustus was got going with them. The Indian realized that Ohlson was still not prepared to tell everything to Captain John Devereaux.

'You don't seem surprised,' said Ohlson.

The chief engineer looked thoughtful. 'No, I don't suppose that I am.'

The lift doors opened, they had reached level three.

In the dormitory block, Shirer was trying to make himself comfortable, which was hard, he had sent two men into the block to find out what they could about the Dominion positions. He hoped they'd be all right, they couldn't really lose anymore people and not be overrun by a half-determined assault. He wondered what Devereaux was up to too.

They entered the bridge of the Augustus without incident.

Marcus had reopened the computer and then reinitialized the primary systems. They were all in place.

Ohlson sat in his chair, the environment suits were bulky but nobody was taking theirs off. Sia had gone to the engine room along with T'sella and Coles, an archeologist that had been assigned to the Hawaii. He had been grossly unused to combat but Devereaux had told Ohlson that Coles was very versatile. As for the other Hawaii crew member, Brisset, a twenty-five year old who hailed from Ostend in Belgium, she was an astrophysicist, tall, leggy and overflowing with confidence. She sat at Smith's station. Barret was at navigation, Tambecki had the helm, and Smith was in Tactical.

Ohlson opened an internal communications link. 'Now hear this, this is the captain speaking.

Everyone take your positions, ready for departure. Bring the weapons on-line.'

'Weapons are fully functional and ready,' reported Smith.

'Sia are the transporters salvageable?'

'Negative sir, we've lost that same coil we burnt out before. It'll be ages until we can replicate a new one.'

_So no transporters,_ thought Ohlson,_ 'it'll make the job a little more difficult but... _'Are the sensors fully operational?'

'Yes sir,' Barret had been scanning the readouts as soon as she had the sensors working.

'Put the forward view on screen.'

The blank screen disappeared to be replaced by the looming and gray arm of the pylon, nothing else was visible.

'Okay Ensign, what's out there?'

The fighters are too far to be a problem, twenty-eight and twenty-nine thousand kilometers, there is no sign of the battleship. I am picking up residual ion tracks of three small vessels, probably shuttles, they are somewhere between three hundred and five hundred meters off our port bow.

There are upwards of twelve bodies in and around the nearest airlock...'

_Nice one Gretchen_, thought Ohlson.

'...There are no troops within fifty meters, although I am picking up ten life signs near the airlock of the block containing Commander Shirer and his people.'

'Don't they know we're here?' Brisset speak aloud.

'Yes, they do, but I think they expect us to go on foot from here.'

The Belgium looked unsure of herself.

'What's the state of affairs on the Shoeman?'

'Two life signs, the injured one is slightly improved from the last time, they still have no shields no power and no weapons, their life support is taking everything that they have.'

Ohlson seemed happy with that. 'Sia?'

'Yes sir.'

'Give us half thrusters, maintain the minimal of power and keep all you can in case the shields need it.

Power up the weapons, and take us out Lieutenant Tambecki.'

Ben turned on the thrusters, the ship shook a little as the engines sought for and reached equilibrium with the gravity and motion of the moon. Then she applied the slightest of power to the reverse engines, they moved a little then they met the resistance of the clamps, then they were free.

'Take us ninety degrees to port.'

Tambecki nudged the controls to comply.

The pylon moved from the viewscreen, they could now see the side of the prison, and the roofs of the other blocks in the distance.

'Ahead slow, look for those troops.'

Tambecki increased the thrust and the Augustus moved away from the pylon and around the side of the prison. Below them they could see the grayish soil of the moon's surface and several bodies that had been blew away from the airlock.

'The fighters are reacting, they're starting to move in this direction,' Barret was doing some rapid calculations, 'they should be within weapons' range in three minutes.'

'Time enough. Keep us on course for the rear of that block, find the Dominion soldiers.'

'Got them!' Smith had been narrowing the sensor search until he had struck gold. 'There are ten, no twenty troops at the rear of the building. It doesn't look like they're aware of our approach.'

'Let's keep it that way, fire wide-band phasers, and sweep that area clean of Dominion soldiery.'

Smith had already aimed the phasers. He fired two swift bursts, then another two and then another. He checked for damage. 'They are retreating, well what's left of them are retreating, I can count six moving to the nearest cover. None of the others are alive.'

'One more blast after them, then Ben take us into those hills as fast as you can, and Lieutenant Smith fire on any targets you see.' He indicated a small series of ridges several hundred meters to their starboard bow. 'Engage.'

Tambecki turned the ship in the desired direction and sent a surge of power to the thrusters. The Augustus leapt away from the prison.

'Two minutes until the fighters are within range.' Barret thought she sounded very calm, she wondered why she wasn't nervous.

Smith had his first glimpse of a Dominion shuttle in less than twenty seconds. As the Augustus flew towards the horizon, a small landing craft rose from behind a crater's ridge. It tried to move in the direction of the approaching fighters and safety.

Smith hit it before it was thirty meters off the ground. It was not a heavily armoured vehicle, nor was it highly agile. It was a sturdy and competent carrier of troops. It had no defense for the twin shafts of phasers than struck it repeatedly. It was a crashing wreck before the Augustus was past its position.

'I'm reading thirty life signs, or ex-life signs.'

Ohlson made no comment concerning Barret's report. 'Take us back Lieutenant.

Deposit us alongside the Shoeman then raise shields and wait.'

'Wait?' Tambecki wasn't certain she'd heard the captain correctly.

'Yes, you and Ensign T'sella are to stay on board and kept the ship operational and ready for instant action. Await my orders and on no account stray away from the Shoeman. It would probably be wise to maintain communication blackout with the prison, I'm not certain of just how good the Dominion are at eavesdropping.'

'Yes sir.'

'The rest of you get your suits sealed. Remember that we have no communications other than hand signals, so be careful and be alert.'

Tambecki had the ship settled a meter from the Shoeman when the rest had donned the suits and weapons. They had assembled near the exit ramp.

'The fighters are now one thousands kilometers and closing. They may arrive here before you can reach the block,' pointed out Tambecki.

'Then we had better hurry.' He sealed his helmet.

Ohlson tapped the door's control panel. There was a whish and then they were standing in the airlock, all six of them.

He waited as the pressure equalized, a red light on one wall blinked out. 'Go!' He tapped the inner door release and then they were on the moon's surface.

Sia was the first out, his long legs eating up the distance between prison and ship. Brisset was right behind him.

Smith, Coles and Barret left the ship together, each going as fast as their inexperience in environment suits and the low gravity would allow. Still, Ohlson noted as he took up the rear, they were moving at a rate of knots. He risked a look behind him at the pylon and the Augustus. He could make out the merest of silhouette of the Shoeman. Ben had put the Augustus down till it was almost touching the other ship. He looked back to his people. His rearward glance had meant the others could gain a few meters. He started to leap forward in as controlled a fashion as the low gravity would let him.

'Did you know that was his plan?'

T'sella shook her head. 'The commander does not confide in me as a rule.'

_Me neither_, thought Ben, _and sometimes I wish he would_. She started to initiate a number of diagnostical checks, she wasn't sure how long they would be here.

Sia was passing the bodies of those the ship's phasers had killed. He resisted the urge to stop he kept running for the rear of the block beyond.

Brisset did stop. She was only a meter or so behind the Indian when she spotted one of the dead soldiers. In his hands was a rifle. It looked to be in one piece. She swerved slightly to reach him and then she stopped and plucked the rifle from his dead hands. That's better, she thought, that's much better. She looked to see where Sia was, and then she recommenced the long loping strides she had been using to travel on this moon. She felt like she could contribute more to the mission now that she was armed.

Barret had been doing everything she could not to think of the two Jem'Hadar fighter hurdling in their direction. She passed the dead bodies and thought about the fact that the fighters would be trying to do to them, and her, what they had done to these troops. She shuddered and tried to put the dread away, she almost succeeded, almost.

Smith and Coles were only a meter or so behind Barret when she fell.

Coles swerved to avoid crashing, Smith was closest he grabbed the arm of the tumbling Barret and then they were running again.

Hope had not even been aware that she was falling until Smith stopped her. She tried to say thank you, but her breath was ragged. This moon walking was taking a lot of effort. She tried to remember when she had last eaten. It seemed so long ago._ That couldn't be a good thing_, she thought, _could it?'_

Ohlson was level with the trio. He had seen Smith's action and smiled in approval at how they stayed on course.

He looked ahead. They had rounded the first block and were in clear sight of the second, and their destination. Sia Singh was already there. He was working on the airlock mechanism.

The girl from the Hawaii had reached him. She had a rifle, and she was taking up position with Sia to enter the block.

As Ohlson looked the Indian and the leggy astrophysicist pushed into the small airlock, the door closed behind them and they were out of sight. He couldn't worry any further about them, he had the others and himself to get under cover before the fighters arrived. He hoped they would need at least one sweep past before they could formulate a plan. He was also hoping that whatever intelligence they were being fed from Nilis that they would be unsure of what was really happening.

A line of energy hit the ground a meter in front of him, _then again_, he thought, _perhaps they'd have a good notion quite early._ The pulse of disruptor fire cut worrying close between the figures of Smith and Barret.

Ohlson noticed then that the beam did not originate from a Jem'Hadar fighter as he had originally imagined, it had came from the right. He glanced in that direction, being careful not to bounce into any obstacles. There it was again, it danced under him. He raised his rifle and fired in the general direction.

His landing was rough and he stumbled, but it only slowed him. In seconds he was up and after the others.

They were almost at the wall of the block, he could make out the recess of the airlock door. Smith had reached it. He tapped the controls and the door opened. He entered it, the Hawaii's crewmember, Coles, walked in with him and then the door closed and they were gone.

Barret was facing the direction of the Dominion sniper. He could see her face. The face was concentrating, searching, then her eyes widened. He looked to where she was looking. A pinpoint in the sky, it was growing rapidly and there were streaks of orange red light coming from it, and heading towards them

The first of the enemy fighters had arrived.

Sia had tapped the controls of the airlock as quickly as the gloves that covered his hands allowed. He heard the noise of the environment suit of Brisset as she took up a position just behind him. The controls reacted to his presence sluggishly, then the outer door opened. He entered quickly and felt the tall figure move alongside.

The door closed and a dim red light came on.

He noted that she had acquired a rifle. He gripped his own and looked at her.

She nodded.

He tapped the small panel beside the next door. There was a small hiss and then it swung aside. The duo entered the rear of the kitchen/barracks section of the prison. Sia moved to the right, Brisset took the led form him and she moved into a crouch to the left.

The relative brightness of the moon's surface gave way to the dim interior of an anteroom. There were no furniture or other unnecessary additives present. There was just a bare room. Sia was walking to the door opposite where they had entered. the room's architecture was the same as the room beside the lifts. It had one purpose and that was to serve as an emergency exit in case of trouble.

Brisset moved to the other side of the doorway to where Sia had gone.

Sia tested the air. He was not expecting anything other than what he did find. The air was fine. He disengaged his internal environment settings and removed his helmet. He attached it to the rear backpack. Now he had more freedom to move, and he could hear.

Brisset was trying to control her own breathing. Sia indicated that she should do what he had. She removed her helmet.

There was a whoosh. Sia backed back. Smith and Coles entered the room in a similar fashion, although less elegant, as Singh and Brisset had.

Their helmets came off as soon as they saw the others.

Barret raised the rifle at the fighter. A blast hit the wall beside her. She was momentarily confused before she realized that the sniper was still in action.

Ohlson was facing the airlock. He believed the sniper was injured or else a lousy shot, but the fighter was getting too close. He shoved Barret back to the door. She resisted at first not comprehending what was happening. Then she understood. Ohlson pushed the petit Barret in front of him and into the open door. As he closed it he saw the disruptor fire head towards them.

He reached the 'open' panel a second after the outer door had shut. He touched it and then they were tumbling into the anteroom.

There was a thud and a shiver as the blasts struck the outer wall. they would not penetrate the reinforced shell of the prison, but they would certainly warn any who did not already know that intruders were close at hand.

Ohlson rose and helped Barret. They removed their helmets. 'Right let's go in.' He noted that Coles was still unarmed. 'Coles, stay back until we get you a weapon.'

The small archaeologist nodded and held back until the others had positioned themselves by the door. Sia and Smith stood to the right, Brisset, Barret and Coles were on the left.

'Ready?' asked.

They nodded or mumbled affirmatives.

'We go to our right, you to the left. If it moves its Dominion, so shoot it.' He tapped Sia's shoulder. 'Open the door.'

The Indian tapped the wall panel. The door slid aside. The main block was brighter than the anteroom. They ran into it, their weapons searching for movement and threat.

Shirer tapped his badge. There was no reply from Jaedener. He tapped it again.

'Jaedener here.'

He felt the relief sweep through him, he had been worried that Jaedener's silence was the first sign of a counterattack. 'What's your status?'

'Nothing new to report, there's the odd noise from pretty far into the block, but no signs of movement.'

'Keep me informed.'

'Sir?'

'What is it?'

'Is there any news of the others?'

He meant did Shirer know when the rescuers would arrive. 'No, but it's early yet.' He wondered did Jaedener believe it, he wasn't sure he believed it itself.

The block was a shambles, it had been badly damaged in the torpedo attack. Pieces of metal and debris littered as far as they could see. There was a lot of cover for Ohlson and his team, but there was lots of cover for the enemy too.

The 'rescuers' spread out as best they could. There had been little noise as they entered. Sia ran to a large doorway that opened to his right - it looked like a storeroom for foodstuffs. Brisset had the weapon aimed as she ran. Ohlson was behind her and heading deeper into the block, he had spied a consoled bulkhead.

Barret was the nearest to the door, she was scanning the interior as Smith dived behind an upturned hovercart, the type used to move heavy stores. He rose and pointed his rifle forward. Coles was diving in behind him when the shooting started.

It was Brisset who fired. She swept the interior, taking little time to memorize the layout - long room, some upturned machines, a lot of spilt bags from the hovercart, a movement... She had the movement isolated and targeted before her brain had even confirmed that what she had seen was a Jem'Hadar soldier turning. He was fifty meters away, far enough to have heard little of their approach considering he had been as close to the fighter's fire as they had. He was raising his disruptor. She pulled the trigger.

The pulse veered away from him, she corrected. She hit the wall of the kitchen the same time as she killed the soldier.

She had been concentrating on firing and had run headlong into the wall. She stumbled, but kept hold of her gun. Sia was turned and pulling her up.

Ohlson was firing.

Someone else was firing, and then she was inside the storeroom.

'Are you okay?'

She nodded in response to Sia's question. She was dazed, and felt not a little clumsy at running into the first obstacle that confronted her.

Sia was smiling. 'Well done.'

'What do you mean?'

'You hit a target while running, quite a nice piece of marksmanship.

As for the wall, I'd rather you'd hit it than ignored the threat to us all.'

She grinned. 'Still, it'd have been a lot more impressive without the wall.'

Ohlson was moving again. He had spied three, they had hit two including the one Brisset had felled. That left one more close and eleven somewhere near.

Smith fired.

'Where?' called Ohlson.

'Upstairs level one, I saw two move out of one of the rooms.'

Barret was scanning the stairs in front of them. 'Nothing close by, one is inside room four up to our right.'

'Is she okay?'

Sia looked at Brisset. She took the cue. 'Yes, she is.'

The commander couldn't help but smile. 'Then move up the block, and be careful, Alex and I will cover, I think they know we're here.'

She stood, Sia waited until she was ready and then they ran out and turned into the next open doorway.

Coles and Barret were right behind

'Was that firing?' Mc Sorley strained to hear. Perhaps it was something being moved.

'Yep!' answered d'Amatsu. 'It would seem that the commander has entered the building via the back door.'

'At least that meant all that shooting outside the place hasn't killed them all.' They had heard the strafing from both the Augustus and the Jem'Hadar fighters and had no idea of who or what were the targets as the communications were down.

She looked over to the lifts and the three people who remained around the open floor panel._ I wonder what Nilis is doing now, she must have some notion that the game is up._

The sounds of shooting stopped. _She wondered was that a good omen?_

'They are still there, at least two of them.' Smith followed his scope as it probed the outer reaches of the large hall.

Sia had run to the dead soldier. 'Coles!'

The man looked to where the chief was.

'Come here.'

He ran to the engineer. The others were continually moving their weapons, seeking the next sign of the enemy.

Sia handed the man the dead Jem'Hadar's rifle.

'Great,' he seized it and checked it. The power level was at three-quarters, and it was ready to fire.

'Okay Lieutenant Smith, are you ready to move out?'

'Ready.'

Marcus started to run, Smith followed keeping a gap of a few meters between them. In no time at all they had reached the consoled pillar. The console itself was dead, the reason for the lack of power was not clear on close examination.

Ohlson caught Sia's eye and pointed to the next room on their right. The left side of the block was devoid of openings, but congested with piping and ventilator openings. _Made sense,_ thought,_ this is the kitchen and stores, they would need more ventilation and service ducts._

He checked his people. All were apparently well enough to continue, and continue they had to. If they stopped or where repulsed then it would be only a matter of time until either a detachment from a shuttle came in behind them, or the Jem'Hadar in front picked them off.

They had paused long enough.

Ohlson held up his left hand and commenced a countdown using his five fingers. Sia rose as he held up two, when his last finger bent the two men were moving, weapons held out and ready, into the room.

That was when the Jem'Hadar attacked.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight.

Mc Sorley was moving around between d'Amatsu, and Colimo. Kausler was just waiting, she felt next to useless with no rifle.

'When do we know to move out?' asked Mico.

'That's Devereaux's call,' _and I wish he'd hurry up and make it. _She tapped her combadge. 'Mc Sorley to Devereaux.'

There was only a pause of a few seconds. 'Devereaux here, what is it?'

'Permission to move the perimeter into the corridor. The shooting from the block would indicate that the enemy is at least distracted momentarily. There may be no better time to get Commander Shirer and his squad back to safety.'

A longer pause. 'Okay Mc Sorley, take your people as far as Shirer's position, stay in the corridor if you can and start ferrying the rest to us. I'll have a medical team at your position waiting. I'll notify Shirer that you're on your way.

Good luck.'

'You heard the man,' she tapped d'Amatsu's shoulder. 'Stay on this side, I'll take the point and Colimo can go to my right.' She stood up, still keeping a watchful eye into the gloom. 'Wait till you hear my order.'

With that she was gone, thirty seconds passed before Mico heard her.

'Move in.'

He rose from his keeling position, made a small groan as the muscles that had been tensed as he knelt protested at the unasked for activity. He started to walk tentatively into the corridor.

Mc Sorley was in the middle and a meter ahead of the others. She kept her rifle directed in front and scanned the limits of her vision.

It was Colimo who saw the enemy first. He was a third of the way to the entrance of the block where Shirer waited. He was keeping his advantage slow so he could maintain a steady hand and kept his scope on the debris that filled the further reaches of the corridor on his left side, the side that Mico was walking directly toward. He saw a glint. It had not been there before, it was not a trick of the light, and it was not something he intended to study until it became clear as to its origins and intent. He fired two bursts of phaser at it.

It moved.

Mc Sorley saw it and fired too.

Mico was looking at the other wall. He saw the flash as a weapon was fired at him. He dived as the searing blast impacted on the debris to his left. It had been close enough to burn his shoulder. He was up and firing, instinct took over. He quickened his pace and fired continuously. It would have been impossible for him to say if he had hit anything. He just moved forward seeking the shelter that he hoped would appear.

Colimo was moving even faster. He saw Mico stumble, then he fired at whoever fired at d'Amatsu. He jumped a small obstacle of fallen wall. Then he saw another movement in the line of debris, he fired at it. It twisted and fell. It had been a soldier, now it was a soldier with some of his face burnt off.

The entrance to the block was just ahead. He fired again, this time blindly.

Mc Sorley had slowed to aim at the attackers. It occurred to her that the sound of firing was more extensive than accounted by the meager firearms that her group processed. From the corner of her eye she saw the muzzle flashes of hand-held phasers, they were coming from the block. Shirer and his people had joined in the battle.

Commander Shirer had his people on alert since he had been told that someone was on their way. He had heard the blasts of the spaceships and concluded that a party was entering, or trying to, via the rear of the block he was in. But, then the shooting had commenced behind him.

It had taken a minute or so to organize some support for the advance into the corridor. He did not dare move the two men from securing the block and their rear. He did send two others, and himself to add to the firepower. The two with him were both numbered among the walking wounded, and while only providing a limited strength he felt that it might be enough. The Jem'Hadar might not be in a position to take on a three-fronted assault.

He saw a shadow amid the debris and he fired. There was a noise, he spun around to face it.

'Good evening Commander.'

'Good evening Lieutenant-Commander.'

Mc Sorley was beside him. Mico was lying behind some rubble, he fired at something then scanned for another target.

Colimo was past them, he kept to their side of the corridor but took up position three meters ahead of them. He aimed into the dimness. The shooting in the corridor stopped, although it sounded like the shooting in the next block was intensifying.

'I think they're busy,' said Shirer.

She put any concerns she may have for her colleagues in the continuing firefight out of her mind. 'Can you start evacuation now Lieutenant?'

'Yes,' he turned toward his section. 'Sovacs, help Yun and Ecclesson.' He tapped his combadge. 'Everyone make for the stairway and evacuation. Jaedener?'

'Yes sir.'

'You and I have the rear, move back slow and easy I'll be waiting. Tell me when you're descending.'

Jaedener waited after he had received the message. He relaxed and did yet another scan of the interior. He adjusted the illumination levels and scanned again. He could see the blur where the cooling corpse of Ensign Domenski lay. He moved the sight.

He swept past the central pillar. He rose and followed the stairs. He was past the console before he paused. _The console? Where was the console?'_

He swept back and stopped. The console had been lit, faintly but lit, the lighting only noticeable in the top level of illumination scope. It was a heat signature but one he had passed countless times when he swept the block for the enemy. _Why was it gone?_

He adjusted the scope so that it took in less light but focused. He read the range as the scope made the adjustment. He centered it on where he believed the console lights had been and then he waited.

Shirer had moved Baker and her section to the ground floor, the four from the upper level was here already. 'Take up a rearguard position until Lieutenant Jaedener gets here,' he told a small woman in the uniform of security. She walked to their right and took up a position facing where they believed the enemy was. She favoured her right side as she had a small but painful piece of shrapnel in her side.

Seven had already departed, including most of the wounded. Four remained, Shirer, the young security guard Baker, and Jaedener. Shirer tapped the combadge again with Jaedener's code. _What was keeping him?_

He heard the taps but didn't move. He fought to keep the strain from closing his eyes. The console was there, he was certain, and he didn't believe it could have cooled so quickly. He licked his lips. _A glass of spring cool water would be a treat at this moment_, he thought. Then he saw the reddish glow of the console. His aim had been out by nearly a meter. He swung the center of the scope to the glow, he searched for the dark edge and found it. This was what was obscuring the console, a Dominion sniper was readying for a shot. He started to squeeze his trigger.

The Jem'Hadar who had painfully and methodically crawled into a vantage point five meters above and fifteen in front of Lieutenant Jaedener fired too. He had aimed at the unmoving figure until it had flinched. Jaedener's movement to get a shot at the enemy had left him open.

'What was that?' Shirer was moving back to cover. Mc Sorley was kneeling beside him. They were responding to the double blast that came from the interior.

'One disruptor and a phaser,' pointed out Mc Sorley, 'call your man again.'

The attack on the eight that had entered via the rear of the kitchen block was swift and intense. Sia and Brisset had almost reached the room when the firing started. One Jem'Hadar emerged from the room and was all but cut in half as Sia and Brisset both fired and hit him. A second ran out before they had recovered from the first shook and he fired before Brisset felled him with a clean shot to the chest.

Ohlson was temporarily blinded by a cascade of sparks and a blast of heat as he ran forward. He lost his footing and fell heavily. Barret got two shots off before she was forced to dive to cover. Smith was behind he bent to help his commander.

Coles was standing wondering what to do. Two Jem'Hadar soldiers hit him almost at the same time, he crumpled lifeless to the ground.

Barret twisted until she could see from under the large metallic table she had taken shelter under. She saw Smith lift the commander. He had his face covered with his right hand but she saw a trickle of blood seep through his fingers. Smith turned and hurried to the room where Sia and Brisset had run. Barret saw the Jem'Hadar duo racing down the middle of the block, their firing was heavy but poorly aimed. They were the ones who had killed Coles.

Pulses flashed around the two men still without cover. Barret aimed and fired, she missed, and fired again. One of the soldiers swerved as he realized he had been targeted, the other kept firing.

Out of the corner of her eye, and in what seemed to be slow motion, Barret caught the disruptor blast from the running soldier hit Smith. He released as both men tumbled to the ground.

'No!' she hadn't even realized that she was yelling. She did realize that she was firing. Her fourth shot, and the fifth slammed the runner to the block's floor.

She was out of breath and could feel her heart thumping in her breast. She could see the bodies of Coles, and Smith. The injured was in no-man's land, and she had no idea what had became of either Sia or the Belgian, but she did think they had walked into a blast of rifle fire.

She ran her hand down her face. She wondered what she should do now.

Sia was wondering the same.

He looked about them. The room was a storeroom. Cabinets and boxes lined the walls. From the smell he guessed grain had been the main ingredient of the boxes. Some of which had been scattered and busted by the violence. Other than himself, Brisset, the stores and the dead Jem'Hadar the room was empty.

He glanced at Brisset. She was holding her left leg where the disruptor had cut a slice from above her knee. It wasn't bleeding, the disruptor would have cauterized the wound as it made it. But she knew that when she walked it would open the unhealed wound and then she would bleed. And it was a long cut, bleeding might well endanger her life at this point.

'I'm fine, just get me to a medic inside ten minutes and I'm sure I'll be back playing tennis in no time.'

'Tennis?'

'Yes, what's wrong with tennis?'

He was scanning the block. 'Nothing, but I thought you'd be better suited to mountaineering and sub aqua sports, not 'tennis'.'

She pondered on whether or not he was insulting her.

Sia spotted the Vorta, he was moving stealthily across from the middle pillar of the block, then he saw the second walking only a couple of meters behind the first. Sia took aim, being careful to move slowly and not let the rifle's muzzle go into the main block where someone further along his side could see it poking out. He centered the sight, then he trained it to the second figure, back to the first and then he fired. The rifle moved rapidly and then he fired again, and a third time. Then he was seating with his back to the wall and looking at the injured Brisset. 'I used to play tennis at the academy, I'll play you sometime.'

Brisset looked pleasantly surprised at the offer. She looked at the leg, she'd take him up, if she managed not to bleed to death in the next half and hour.

Jaedener couldn't move.

He was lying face down, his arm was numb, so were his legs.

The rifle was lying a few centimeters from his fingers. He couldn't muster enough strength to get his hands to lift the weapon.

He didn't need to see if he had hit the soldier he had been aiming at, he knew that he had gotten a good sight and he had enough confidence in his abilities to believe that his shot had been true. One more soldier of the Dominion was going to miss his bedtime story. He groaned as a spasm of pain shot down his right side.

He knew in what direction the shot that hit him had came from, he even could praise the professionalism of the sniper, but it still hurt.

And it was getting worse.

'Jaedener?'

The voice...

'Lieutenant?'

'I'm here,' he called to the voice behind him. He heard the shoes scuffle nearer.

'Lieutenant Jaedener?'

'Yes Commander?'

Shirer bent down and scanned the injured man with a tricorder. He grimaced as he read the conclusions.

'I have spinal injuries and have lost some blood, my chances are slim, and the sniper who did this is still out there...'

There was a loud report.

'No he's not.' Mc Sorley's voice came from the level below.

From where he lay Jaedener could make out the shadow of the first officer as she moved to a position under the injured man.

'Good shot Lieutenant-Commander.'

'We'll have to lift you lieutenant,' said Shirer.

'I know.'

'I can give you some painkiller, but it was not intended for injuries as severe as these, it probably will only dull the pain a little.'

Jaedener tried to nod and failed. He could move his head a little but the way he was laying prevented the movement. 'I understand.

I'm ready when you are.'

He had bearly time to get that statement out when he was pulled away from the parapet of the gangway and up and on to the shoulders of Commander Shirer. A stifled moan escaped from him.

Mc Sorley's eyes moved around the area to the front of them. She could still see the place where the sniper had hid. She had watched like this earlier when Shirer had walked up the steps and made such a show of finding Jaedener. That was what had brought out the sniper, it had taken Mc Sorley only a few seconds to find him and fire. A few seconds that had cost another Dominion trooper his life. She noticed that the shooting from the adjacent block had ceased she couldn't remember when that had happened. She walked cautiously backward. She hoped the lull meant that and the others were making their way back to the rest.

Barret had thought she was going to have a coronary when the shooting started again. It was so close, and then she realized that it was from the room where Lieutenant Singh and Brisset had gone. It had been a phase rifle so that meant that Singh was still alive. She felt relief at finding out she was not alone.

She twisted until she could look over in the direction of the shooting. 'Lieutenant Singh?'

'Yes.'

'Any suggestions?'

In the room the Indian found himself smiling. The ensign hid her fears well, better than she probably thought that she did. He glanced at where the two Vorta had been. There was nothing to be seen of the enemy. They were probably in as bad a shape as the Starfleet team. 'One, but first do a head count.'

'But, they've been-'

'Never mind what you think you know ensign, find out.'

She shrugged. She tried to remember Coles' rank, she wasn't sure whether he had been an ensign or a lieutenant._ It hardly matters,_ she thought,_ now. '_Lieutenant Coles?'

No reply. 'Lieutenant Coles.'

Nothing.

Sia didn't bother correcting the rank that she had attributed to Coles, it didn't really matter in the circumstances.

'Lieutenant Smith.'

She was about to shout again, when she thought she heard a moan.

'Lieutenant Smith?'

'Here.' It was low and mostly said to the floor, but it was his voice.

Barret smiled with relief.

'Commander?'

'Still breathing ensign, still here.' He blinked and a few of the numerous black spots that decorated his vision left. It would be a few more blinks until he made an impression on the multitude of dots that vied to confuse his vision.

The next call was made with more hope. 'Lieutenant Singh?'

'Here.'

'Lieutenant Brissy?'

'That's Briss-ay, ensign, B.R.I.S.S.E.T. and I'm here.'

'Can you two move at all?' Sia aimed the question at Smith and. He was unsure as to the extent of any injuries that they might have.

'My vision is returning,' moved his hand to poke at Smith. 'How about you?'

'Fine, if people would not poke me where the uniform is welded to my back.'

Barret stifled a laugh.

'I have some wounds, I don't know the extent. The backpack took the brunt of the blast, I may have an odd broken rib... But other than that I'm lying here because it seemed the wisest course of action.'

'What do you want us to do now Commander?' Sia was scanning the inside of the block as he spoke.

'Can everyone else walk and run?'

'Walk quickly, perhaps,' answered Brisset.

'We will have to continue as planned. I doubt if it'll be necessary to delay for Shirer. I haven't heard anything outside of our position except for the odd shot. So it's rapidly as we can.'

Sia took another swept with the rifle.

'We go in the same order that we entered this place, do you all understand?'

'Yes sir,' answered Sia.

'Yes commander,' Brisset pulled herself up using the wall as support until she was standing.

Barret pulled her legs up until she was squatting. 'Yes.'

They heard a muffled 'yes' from Smith.

'Then, after three...

One...

Two...'

Sia was standing, he looked at Brisset. She had her rifle held steadily at waist level.

Barret leant forward. She was watching to see more. If they followed the same order then she and the commander where taking up the rear.

'Three!'

Sia was running out of the room. He jumped over a fallen piece of machinery. He dodged a wire conduit casing that dangled from one of the upper level walks. He had his rifle at shoulder level and he was scanning as quickly as he could in the small field of vision that enabled him to run with safety and look for the eight or thereabouts enemy that still inhabited the block.

Brisset was falling behind. She kept up as far as the hanging conduit. It wasn't that her leg was painful, it wasn't. It was weak, she knew if she went faster then she would fall. She ignored the weakness and turned the rifle's muzzle to her right and then to her left, her eyes sought out a clue that would indicate a Dominion soldier hiding.

Marcus Ohlson scrambled to his feet. He saw Sia make the machinery. He saw Brisset limp after him. Smith was up, it was obvious that movement was causing him pain in his back, but the lieutenant only glanced at the commander prior to running after the others.

As Smith moved ahead of him, he saw the lieutenant's back. The disruptor had shredded the rucksack, the straps and a blackened tatter of cloth was all that remained. Ohlson bet that the medical pack and equipment that had been in the bag had taken the force away from the blast and while he had been burnt, they had saved his life.

Ohlson hoped the lieutenant's suit was still usable, they would need it if they reached where they were going. He spied the small figure rise from the cover it had found and then Barret was a meter behind him.

'Run.'

He heeded her and ran. Before he had reached the swinging wires he heard the sounds of phasers and disruptors, they were from the direction that they were going.

Mc Sorley set the injured Jaedener down. Samantha Lockhead was over and supervising his care as she stood and turned her attention back to the corridor. The lieutenant was in some pain.

Lockhead administered some painkiller and started scanning him with the tricorder.

The sounds of firing came from the direction of the corridor. Mc Sorley was looking in that direction.

Shirer, who had been over talking to Devereaux since they had managed to get everyone back near the lifts, returned. A young-faced ensign who had not been one of his original squad was with him. 'He'll let five go.'

'Five?'

'I'd take it that would be, you and your three. Ensign Hollis,' he indicated the man alongside, 'and I will go too.'

'I'll be better.'

Shirer looked at the speaker.

Gretchen Kausler walked into the group. 'I have more experience and would be the better choice.' She held out her hand to Hollis for the phaser he was carrying.

The youngster looked at Shirer.

'Okay Yeoman, if Commander Mc Sorley agrees...'

'I do.'

'Okay Hollis, give the yeoman the weapon and return to Captain Devereaux.'

Hollis hesitated then handed the weapon to Kausler. He didn't seem sure of how to interpret the events.

'Thank you ensign,' she looked at him, 'they are my friends I appreciate that you were willing to go, but it should be me.'

He smiled tentatively and appeared mollified by her words. 'Good luck.'

She accepted his comment with a nod.

He turned and walked away.

'What is Devereaux doing with the others?'

Shirer glanced back and held back any comment on the pace of the changes that had occurred in his absence. 'Commodore Nilis is under arrest.

She was caught trying to add a signal to some information that was being sent, a flag of some kind, probably telling them they had been found out.' Shirer sounded disappointed. 'He has Lieutenant O'Halloran, one of our engineers, feeding semi-corrupted fragments of misinformation down the communications link. But I don't think he believes it'll be long before they tumble on Nilis' removal.

He's starting to evacuate the rest to the docking pylon.' He seemed apologetic at the next part. 'He's given command of the ship you called the Caesar, to me. It'll be the main evacuation vessel.' He paused. 'It also seems that your Commander has moved the Augustus.

Which, Devereaux thought was going to be his ship.'

'Moved?'

'Anyway, he's assembling everyone at the Caesar and the Gaunt until we get word from Commander Ohlson.' He smiled. 'He understands that the commander doesn't fully trust us, and he is - it seems - giving him a lot of room to do whatever it is he has planned.

I hope he knows what he's doing?'

'He does,' piped in Mc Sorley. _Or at least I hope he does._ 'Then let's go.' Mc Sorley signaled to d'Amatsu and Colimo. 'We're going in to get the commander.'

Sia had run over half the length of the block. He had seen no sign of the enemy. He was intent on reaching the opening to the corridor and then turning to assist the others. He heard the shots.

Brisset was gasping as she maneuvered around the obstacles, who'd have known the amount of debris and rubble that would have fallen. The blast from the torpedo had been relatively far away. She could only assume that some structural damage had emanated from the hub's room and spread into this block. She twisted to get over a metal grill that had originated two floors up. She swung her leg as the disruptor's beam hit the grill where her foot was to be.

Smith saw where the blast came from he fired from the waist. The pulse jabbed a meter or so from the target, but it did have the effect of making the shooting cease - momentarily.

Barret and Ohlson, both saw and heard the shooting, Barret slowed so as not to leave Ohlson behind. He was having difficulty avoiding the obstacles.

His knee tipped off a sheet of metal plating that lay across their path, he stumbled. Hope had his elbow and steadied him. They were running again.

A Jem'Hadar soldier spied the runners, he was at the entrance to the block. He had been one of those who had been firing on Mc Sorley and the others. Now he turned his attention to the Starfleet persons that were heading directly toward him. He nestled himself into a corner of the first floor gangway. He settled his disruptor into his shoulder. The shooting was getting near. He aimed at where he suspected they, the runners, would emerge. He waited.

Another blast, this time the sniper didn't withdraw into cover. The third shot sent Smith spiraling for cover. He ended up under a one-time kitchen table.

Sia was nearing the front of the block, none of the shots had been aimed at him. He felt a little guilty in suspecting that was because his run was the factor that was awakening the enemy to the group's approach. He halted and took up a position by the wall, there was the minimal of cover but he was more concerned that he was able to assist the rest. He scanned the vicinity, one bob of a head, twenty to twenty-five meters away, showed that someone was trying to cut out in front of the advancing people. Sia aimed at the spot where he had last seen the head move. He waited.

Brisset was having great difficulty, the firing was awkward, the enemy were a threat, but it didn't help that a few moments ago she had tried to leapfrog over a small something or other and on landing she had opened her leg wound. The next turn had resulted in her slipping in her own blood. Now, she lay behind another indeterminate object and tried to use the strap of the Jem'Hadar rifle as a tourniquet. It seemed to be slowing the blood flow but not stopping it. A crash of a disruptor blast hitting the 'something' she was hiding behind did nothing to add to her sense of optimism.

Barret fired into the darkened opening that was a doorway into a room, she sprayed the area, and had the satisfaction of hearing a 'umpt' and a crash of a falling body.

Marcus had most of his sight back. He was sweeping the area on the other side of the block. He saw nothing of note. 'Come on!'

The two of them started running again, this time they stopped when the reached a small clearing in the rubble. They stopped when a pulse glanced off Ohlson's backpack and sent him spinning downward. He landed awkwardly but nothing - he hoped - had been broken.

Barret was blasting away in the general direction of the shooter. Then a second joined in. She dived out of the line of fire. They were just over halfway down the block.

Ohlson moaned as he aggravated some bruises he had received further down the block.

'Hello Commander.'

He looked up. A meter to his right was the sitting figure of Alex Smith.

'Kinda rough out there, isn't it?'

'Kinda,' Ohlson agreed.

Another figure had joined the one that Sia was aiming at, if they didn't disappear quickly, he thought he would be able to get both of them. One looked to be a Vorta.

The Jem'Hadar had Sia, it had not been easy to move the few centimeters out so that he could get a perfect aim on the target. He had centered the sight on the top of the target's neck, it would be a killing shot The Starfleet intruder was looking into the block, the sniper was above him and ten meters away. It was an easy shot. He gently started to pull the trigger.

Mc Sorley fired at almost the same time as Colimo.

The sniper's finger still pulled the trigger but the relaxed grip that came with instant death sent the pulse into the wall. Sia still fired his rifle. Then he dived sideward.

'We can't stay here, so let's get out.' Ohlson rose and fired. Smith copied him and then Barret made the three pulses of phaser fire dance in a dangerous arc before them as they ran further down the block.

'Lieutenant Singh?'

Sia lowered his gun.

'Lieutenant, I'd appreciate it if you weren't to shot me.'

'Lieutenant-Commander Mc Sorley?'

'Yes, and we're coming in.'

'We?'

Colimo ran to one side, T'sella had the other. Kausler ran further into the block took up a firing position and started to fire at something that Sia couldn't see.

Commander Shirer appeared. 'Do you know where the rest are?'

He looked at Mc Sorley, and then answered. 'Coles is dead, Brisset is injured, and the Commander took some damage to his eyes,' in answer to Mc Sorley's unspoken question he continued, 'I have no idea of how bad that is.

The rest,' he added, ' are down there somewhere.'

'Here they come.' Kausler was firing savagely into the gloom. Colimo and T'sella followed suit. The blanketing of both sides of the block pushed the Dominion troops away temporarily.

'Anyone we know?' Smith was past the clearing, the shooting was louder and getting nearer, but it was phasers not disruptors.

'Is it the cavalry?' Barret was still firing to her left. She stopped.

Ohlson was negotiating a turn in the path of the least obstacles when he saw the environment suit. 'Brisset?'

He ran to her side, knelt down and touched her face. She was cool. The puddle of spreading blood around her leg explained why.

'I'm out.' Barret looked at the phaser's power indicator, then she saw Brisset.

'More are coming out.' T'sella was watching the middle of the block. She was the first to see the environment suits.

'How many?' Mc Sorley was waiting for Shirer, the commander had gone to the first floor to scan for the lost people.

'Three... No it's four.'

Smith and Ohlson carried Brisset between them, Barret had Smith's rifle and was walking backward just behind the rest watching for a rear attack.

She was not required to fire the rifle on their way out. For whatever the reason the Dominion troops resisted the urge to attack.

Ohlson's team left the corridor first. They passed d'Amatsu who had been at the entrance to the middle block. He nodded a greeting as they passed.

Colimo and T'sella joined d'Amatsu to cover their journey past the adjacent wing, Mc Sorley, Kausler and Shirer were the last to leave the block.

By the time Mc Sorley reached the open area in front of the lifts a medic was seeing to the wounded officer. 'How is she?'

Singh shrugged. 'On a starship, or a base, she'd be fine, here...'

'She's lost a lot of blood, and there isn't the facilities here to fix her.' Ohlson was rubbing his face. 'She'll have to get to a ship or base soon, or she'll bleed to death.'

The medic, Sam Lockhead, was scanning the others with her tricorder. 'I've done all I can, the bleeding has been halted, but unless it's replaced soon.' She left the rest unsaid.

Sia waited patiently as she scanned him.

'You're fine,' smiled the medic. She seemed genuinely pleased to see him again. Then to Ohlson she added. 'Unlike you, you have to rest your eyes, you received minor lesions on your retinas...'

Marcus held up his hand. 'I'll rest tomorrow ensign. How is Lieutenant Smith?'

Smith was standing looking embarrassed.

'Fine, he'll have a suntan on his back for a while, but other than that.'

'Thank you.' Ohlson looked about the lift area. There were only twenty people there including the Augustus' crew, Brisset, Lockhead and Shirer. 'Where is everyone?'

Ensign Hollis appeared. 'Captain Devereaux and the others are on the Gaunt and the Caesar, they're awaiting your return.' He singled Kausler out. 'Glad you could make it.'

Kausler smiled at him.

'Let's not keep the captain waiting then.' Ohlson started walking to the lifts. The others followed. Smith and Colimo carried Brisset between them, Lockhead stayed with her.

Ten got into the lift, Lieutenant Overend remained to conclude the evacuation of the last ten. Three left at level four, they were Brisset, Colimo, Smith and Lockhead. The rest traveled the distance to the airlock of level five, and the Gaunt.

In under a minute they were on the bridge of the Gaunt.

'Kindly unlock us Chief.'

Sia nodded and went to the console to comply with Devereaux's request.

'So you've decided not to stick rigidly to your stated plan Commander?'

'That's correct, ' he replied unflapped by the tone of the question, 'flexibility is what is called for.' Before Devereaux could continue he added. 'Where is Commodore Nilis?'

A pause during which Devereaux considered whether or not to continue and attempt to chastise Ohlson. 'He's in a storage cabinet, and drugged.'

The commander gave a nod. 'Then here's the rest of the plan.'

Devereaux started to say something about the fact that he had been under the impression that he had already known the plan. He stopped before he had started. Ohlson then told him the real plan.

Colimo and Smith joined the others shortly after started to outline the escape plan.

Five minutes later and the plan was being set in motion. Of the one hundred and twenty people who had made it thus far, twenty were on the Gaunt, which was to be captained by Devereaux. Shirer was on the Caesar, as was the most of the remainder of the Hawaii's crew, ninety in total.

The Augustus' crew was in the open area near the airlock to the Shoeman. six of the eight wore environment suits, including the one taken from Brisset, which was worn by Kausler. They had checked them prior to this moment. Smith's suit had been compromised in the attack, and Cole's body still wore one.

Smith and Colimo were to remain in the open area of the lifts until two suits could be brought to them.

Ohlson was giving the crew time to say a temporary farewell to the two staying behind. Mc Sorley strolled over to him.

'Do you really think it'll work?' asked Mc Sorley out of hearing from the others.

Ohlson smiled. 'Maybe.'

Kausler was standing up from where she had been working near the airlock door. 'Ready!'

On hearing that Alex Smith shouldered the rifle, patted Colimo's back and moved to the lift door. They all took the lift to the Gaunt. The airlock was still open. Hollis and Overend stood guard.

'We'll be quicker that lightening,' Barret felt silly after saying it.

Smith smiled. 'Then go, and hurry back.'

The airlock doors whooshed closed. Ohlson and his people stayed in the Gaunt's airlock, Hollis and Overend moved into the main body of the ship.

When the doors closed, Colimo moved over to the lifts. He opened their doors and jammed the mechanisms. 'Now,' he said, 'if we are going to be disturbed it will be from that direction.' He pointed to the access door leading to the laddered service way.

Smith walked over and took up a position near the opening of the way down, but he didn't look take a look to see if anything was there. He listened. The duo settled to await developments.

The ship moved with a small judder. The locking clamps opened and the Gaunt was moving away from the pylon. Then it dipped and settled.

'Okay Commander,' the voice was Devereaux's, 'we're on the surface.

Good luck.'

Sia took the nod from the commander. He tapped the panel near the door. It was difficult, the six people made the airlock cramped and uncomfortable. He listened as he heard the satisfying sound of the door to the surface of the prison moon open.

Kausler was the first out, Mc Sorley was at her heels. Behind them came Singh, Barret, then d'Amatsu and Ohlson.

They had been let out at the base of the pylon, only meters from the side of the Shoeman. Kausler stopped and started to work on one of the sides of the ship, Mc Sorley covered her.

The rest hurried around the Shoeman and to the familiar shape of the Augustus. Ohhson had some concern that the radio silence would throw up a nasty surprise or two, his worse fear was they would reach this far and find the Augustus gone. It wasn't.

Sia reached the door of their ship just before Hope Barret he was tapping an agreed access code in as she arrived.

The door opened. Sia and Hope walked in. Barret had only entered when Mico and the commander entered.

They didn't wait for the others. Sia was equalizing the pressure and impatiently waiting for the signal that would indicate that he could open the door to the ship. The light blinked, he tapped the panel and the whoosh was hardly started when he was on board the Augustus.

He stopped. He found himself staring into the muzzle of a phaser.

'Welcome back Lieutenant Singh.' T'sella lowered her weapon.

Sia glanced towards the bridge. Ben was returning to her seat, she too had a weapon and was only now standing it down.

Barret and the others followed.

Ohlson removed his helmet. 'Take Mico's and mine, they're about the right sizes.' He was already taking off the environment suit.

Mico commenced to take his off too.

It took a couple of minutes, the suits were built to withstand temperatures and atmospheric pollutants, but ease of removal was low down the suit designers' priorities.

Sia was holding Ohlson's and Barret awaited d'Amatsu.

'Here,' he handed it over.

'Be as fast as you can,' turned and walked to the bridge.

The doors closed and Mico wondered where he should be.

'Take engineering,' called Ohlson, 'check us for departure Mister d'Amatsu.'

They were back on the moon's surface. Sia took point Hope remained a meter or so behind. She gave up trying to maintain her grip on the rifle, the suit was too bulky. She concentrated on rounding the Shoeman. She wondered at the conditions inside, they could not be pleasant after the pounding they had received.

She spied Kausler and Mc Sorley. The yeoman was packing the rucksack away.

Sia was almost at the Gaunt.

They had debated whether to use the Gaunt or the Augustus to return to the pylon. It was decided that it would be unnecessarily awkward to move the Augustus over and past the Shoeman and the Gaunt, and that it was easier to park the Gaunt and then dock again.

That was part of the plan.

She was in the airlock, Sia closed the door. He opened his helmet as soon as the pressure equalized. 'Singh and Barret, we're back and ready.'

'Very good Mister Singh.'

Devereaux's acknowledgment was followed rapidly by the hum of the thrusters, and then they were leaving the moon's surface. Barret felt the minor turns and twists as whoever the pilot was moved them back into range of the docking clamps.

Sia was at the door panel, there was a hiss as the pressure altered, and then the doors started to part.

Sia was taking a step, Barret was behind. A blast thumped into the side panel of the door. The Indian didn't pause he dived out of the lift. Barret watched as his large suit encased body vanished out of her line of sight.

She crouched and ran as fast as she could. She heard another shot.

'Report, Lieutenant Tambecki.'

Ben was back at the helm. 'We've had no communications and no one has attempted to contact us. Transporters are off-line, weapons are at optimal, and we have restored communications.'

T'sella was opening consoles in preparation to the other's arrival. 'Should I return to the engine room now Commander?'

'Not yet T'sella, wait until the lieutenant-commander and the yeoman are here. Until then take up your defensive position at the airlock.' He spoke to Tambecki. 'Open a link to the lieutenant-commander.'

'It's open.'

'Mc Sorley this is, what is your status?'

'Mc Sorley here, we are outside the airlock. The gaunt has returned to the docking pylon, but I think they've encountered some trouble.'

'Put me through to Captain Devereaux.'

Ben did as she had been instructed.

'Gaunt this is the Augustus.'

'We're disengaging from the pylon commander. Your people are inside the structure, but there was weapons' fire. We have no idea of their status.

Oh,' he added, 'Commodore Nilis has escaped.'

'Escaped?'

'Lieutenant Overend is missing too.' Devereaux sounded like he wasn't enjoying telling the news. 'Two officers were guarding Nilis, Overend told them I'd sent him to relieve them. He sent them away on a fool's errand while he helped Nilis.

They were last seen near the transporters, or at least Overend and another person who carried a crate on one shoulder and obscured any direct look at his or her face.

I have no idea of where they could be, but they will be trying to stop us.

Two phasers are missing too.

They may be the ones attacking your people.'

Ben glanced around at Ohlson, he was white-faced with anger 'Very good Gaunt, we'll get back to you.'

'Sir,' T'sella's voice came through the combadge.

'What is it Ensign?'

'I'm picking up a transmission, it's coming from the Shoeman.'

'Can you read it?'

'No, it's in a cipher the computer doesn't recognize.'

'I guess,' said Tambecki, 'that means we've lost the element of surprise.'

Ohlson's mind was racing. 'Get Devereaux back.'

'Move the Gaunt and the Caesar away from the pylon, only a few meters, but give the Shoeman room to escape.'

Devereaux's face on the screen showed none of the doubt he must have been feeling.

'Captain Devereaux, this will work, but it will need the Shoeman to leave the pylon first.'

He nodded. 'What will the Augustus be doing?'

'Well we have to collect our people first, then...'

Colimo and Smith had thought they would have ten or so minutes until someone returned with environment suits for them. Then they would be using one of Gretchen's bombs to open the airlock. They would be concealed in the lifts and would escape the damage the instant depressurization would cause. Then they would all leave via the ruptured airlock and rendezvous with the Augustus. Well, that had been the plan.

He, Colimo, had been moving the weight from his right leg to his left to prevent cramp when he heard the noise. He froze.

From the corner of his eye he noted that Smith was standing very still. Then the lieutenant's head nodded at the Bolian.

Colimo pointed to the ladder. Smith was over beside him, his rifle was at the ready.

They heard it again. It definitely came from the level below them. Someone was moving about. Colimo flexed his shoulder and felt the side of the rifle press reassuredly against him.

'Hello!'

Both men froze again.

'Hello, is anyone there?'

Colimo stared in disbelief at Smith. The voice was non-threatening, and... he wondered had he heard it before. It sounded young. Smith took a step back but shook his head at the chief indicating that he was not to respond.

'Hello, is anyone there. This is Lieutenant Paul Overend, is anyone there? I can't get the lifts to work.'

Colimo shrugged at Smith,_ had they left Overend behind in their haste to vacate the prison?_

Smith was wondering the same thing.

Both men were confused at the turn events seemed to have taken. Colimo was frowning, he was trying to work out where Overend could have been to be overlooked. He had not been in the corridor, he'd - as far as Colimo could remember - stayed with Devereaux's team.

The sounds of the man climbing the ladder increased.

Smith took up a position near the door and kept his rifle ready. He scanned the lifts, the airlock, he was wondering did he have any reason for this edginess.

Overend's head came over the parapet. 'Oh, eh, he seemed confused himself. 'What's the matter?' He pulled himself the rest of the way over the ledge. 'Why didn't any of you answer?'

'Where were you?' Smith appeared to have decided to remain cautious.

The chief took his lead from the lieutenant. He lifted the muzzle of his rifle until it was aiming at around the young lieutenant's legs.

'What's the matter? Don't you recognize me?' His eyes lowered, and he inched away from the rim. 'I was checking the corridor opposite the one where you people were posted, then no one came for me I went to look.' He took another step nearer.

Smith saw no phaser.

'Has everyone else left, are you two the rearguard?'

He should have a phaser, thought Alex, if he was sent to scout out a part of the base, then Devereaux would have sent him armed.

'Why are you looking at me like that?' He took another step.

Colimo's rifle rose until it was aiming at the man's midriff.

'Why...'

He was turning ever so slightly towards the chief. Something was hidden at the back of his uniform it looked like a phaser.

_Why would he conceal a weapon when he said he didn't know who was up here? _Smith lifted his rifle until it held the lieutenant in the center of its aim. 'Stay where you are lieutenant, don't move.'

'What? What is the meaning...' he was turning.

Colimo saw the movement, it was slight, a blur, a hand had appeared over the edge of the parapet. It held a phaser and it fired.

Overend made a grab for his own weapon as he dived to Smith's right.

Alex fired from his waist, he pulled the rifle in an arc to follow the lieutenant.

Colimo fell.

The phaser moved towards Smith, he fired in the direction of the hand and moved backwards. The blast hit the wall behind where he had been standing.

Alex felt the wall behind him, he had misjudged, he had thought he was backing out of the doorway. He couldn't risk looking to see where the door was, he was following the hand.

There was another blast. Colimo was firing.

The hand was persistent. The line of deadly pulses made a tattoo on the bulkhead close to the chief, he scrambled to the door and out.

Alex was about to fire again, when something fell a meter from him. He looked at the small metallic orb. He wondered what it was, and where it had came.

Colimo's hands reached over and tugged Alex through the door with a roughness that had Smith sliding across the floor and stopping near the inner wall.

He was about to ask why when there was an explosion. It wasn't a large one, but the walls cushioned it, and the sound was disabling. Smith felt his head throb and his eyes shut as he tried to clear the fog.

Colimo was quicker to recover, quick enough to see the figure of Commodore Nilis emerge from the ladder, and quick enough to avoid the shot that was aimed at him.

Nilis was attempting to gain control of the area, but the presence of Colimo and Smith was preventing this. He moved to the doorway as Colimo fired. He dodged back, then came straight to the fore firing wildly, Overend was with him, but was obviously injured, badly injured going by the way he was holding a bloody portion of his tunic.

The fire was intense and threatening to allow the two to overrun the access area to the docking bay.

That was when Singh and Barret arrived.

Sia dived across the floor skidding as he went. His hand aimed his weapon as best it could. He saw Colimo, instantly recognizable by the blue skin, he saw a blue-uniformed figure on the ground, and he saw Nilis.

He fired at the Commodore.

Barret was right behind, if a little less graceful. She was firing at Nilis as the tall woman gave up the frontal assault and retreated to the room containing the ladder. She fired as she went making the two newly arrived move to avoid being hit.

She slammed the door shut behind her.

Sia was up and over to Colimo.

Barret was ready to pursue the Vulcan.

'Leave her,' ordered Singh, 'we've a job to do, so let's stop delaying and do it.'

Barret hesitated for only a moment, then she rushed to the prone figure of Alex Smith.

'What is it,' he grumbled, rising painfully from the ground, 'have I got a big target painted on my back?'

Colimo assisted getting him to his feet. He was more dazed that damaged.

'What about you?' Smith looked worriedly at Colimo, 'I saw you fall.'

The Bolian looked embarrassed. 'I tripped, the only casualty was my ego.'

'Could you please hurry and get those suits on?' Sia was kneeling and watching the now closed door. 'I doubt whether Commodore Nilis wishes to remain here alone.'

'He isn't alone,' Colimo was pulling his legs into the suit that Barret had handed him, 'Overend was with him.'

'Overend? The lieutenant from the Hawaii?' Barret moved to the airlock and positioned herself to cover the side of the doorway away from Singh.

'Yeah,' Smith was pulling the tunic over his head. 'They both came in shooting.'

'We can't use the service shaft now.'

Sia had come to the same conclusion too. 'And if we are still planning on blowing the airlock will need to find some cover, and if not the service shaft then we may have to consider the lifts.'

'That will be tricky,' Smith was dressed, 'if the blast damages the mechanism of the lift while we are inside then we'll have no way of getting out.'

'If we blow it while we stay here,' asked Colimo, 'what are the chances of getting out in one piece?'

'Remote.' Smith rubbed his ears, the pressure from the blast hadn't been enough to deafen but it had left a ringing sound echoing in his ears. 'We would have to survive a blast in a confined space, and then stay in one piece as the place depressurizes around us.'

'He's right, we won't be able to exit using the bomb.' Barret was moving over to the large windows. 'We either have to use the airlocks, which are at the other side of the building, or someone has to come and get us.' She was looking into the dusky landscape outside. 'And I think that is the plan.'

'What is it Ensign?' Sia stood, still keeping a wary eye on the door where Nilis was last seen.

'The Augustus, it's moving toward us.'

The edge of the window showed the dust being disturbed by a moving vehicle, a large vehicle. It wasn't visible. 'What makes you think it's the Augustus?' Sia scanned for a clue but found none.

'The Shoeman,' said Barret,' is there.' She pointed to the right of the pylon and below them. 'The dust clouds are too far away to be it. So, by a process of elimination, it's the Augustus.' She smiled as she made her announcement.

'If Nilis works that out too, she will attack, she won't have much choice.' Colimo checked his rifle. 'I've nearly emptied the power pack.'

'Me too,' Smith was still wincing, but he had moved to the door.

'What's that?' Singh's head swung around to face the lifts.

'What?' Barret had heard nothing.

Colimo moved back so he was able to see the door and the lifts.

There was a small clang.

'That!' Singh was over to the lifts and looking in them. The noise seemed to originate from...

A large blast rocked the vicinity of the pylon. Singh fell backward, Barret held on to the wall for support. Smith moaned as he collided with the floor again. Colimo stayed where he was, watching.

'Singh rolled over. 'What was...'

The lift doors were buckling. The sounds of metallic stress filled the room. The doors had been kept open, now they were being forced to close. Sia was trying, unsuccessfully to understand what he was seeing. Then the lift on the right fell. The shiny interior of the lift disappeared to be replaced by the more functional gray of the tube into which it had been set.

It was Colimo who understood first. 'Get ready, they'll be coming down the tube.'

He had hardly finished talking when the first Jem'Hadar fell into the space vacated by the falling lift. He was attached to a rope and he was firing his disruptor.

Devereaux had backed the Gaunt away from the pylon and waited.

'Report.'

He had appointed Commander Schellinger his first officer and it was to him that he addressed the question.

'We have company. A shuttle has come into sensor range, three kilometers to our starboard.'

'What are the fighters doing?'

'Nothing as yet, but they have taken up a static defense position.'

'Where is the Augustus?'

'Approaching the docking bay, it'll be there in a minute or so.'

'Sir,' Hollis had the tactical station.

'What is it Ensign?' asked Devereaux.

'I'm detecting an explosion in the pylon... No, it's two explosions.

Now there is weapons' fire.'

'Dock us as quickly as you can, Ensigns d'Amatsu, and T'sella join me at the airlock bring weapons.' He looked at Kausler. 'Gretchen, you too.' He stood up. 'Deborah you have the bridge.

Mc Sorley choice not to push the point that it was policy that the captain stays away from danger as much as possible. By the time she had completed the argument the docking would be done. She'd pull him later, if there were a later.

'The Shoeman has powered its engines.' The message was delivered almost simultaneously to Ohlson and Devereaux.

'Ignore them,' said Mc Sorley'.

Devereaux wasn't so sure.

'What is their status?'

'As far as we can tell they have suffered severe damage, they have lost warp, and their weapons appear to be off-line too.'

'What about transporters?'

'No. They have no transporters that the sensors can determine.'

He wondered should he pursue or even attack the renegade vessel.

'What's happening?'

Shirer watched the drama unfold from the Caesar's position ten meters to the pylon's starboard. He was as much in the dark as Lieutenant O'Halloran. He debated whether or not to announce something to the crew, but what would he say, better, he decided, to wait until he had some concrete news to give them than add to the speculation that such desperate data would generate.

Tambecki urged the craft into the docking clamps, they locked. The ship settled. She cut the thrusters. 'We've docked.'

From their position inside the airlock, had already opened the outer door. He was the first out, d'Amatsu ran to his right, Kausler to his left. She was firing at something he was not able to see. T'sella stayed at the Augustus.

The first thing that saw was two Jem'Hadar, one dead, the other firing while hanging down the lift shaft. A blast struck him on the chest and he slumped sideward. There was more firing, this time from the direction of the service way. Blasts were pouring through the open doorway with a ferocity that was making a return of fire impossible.

d'Amatsu was with Barret. She was trying to tell him something. He nodded and she ran over to the Augustus.

'Power's gone,' was all she said as she passed.

Colimo and Smith had been caught on the wrong side of the room. The blistering fire from the unknown shooter was pinning with one the wrong side of the room.

Sia and Kausler were creeping towards the door. Gretchen was retrieving something from her rucksack as she went.

There was another blur of movement at the lift. A soldier swung down and into the room in one fluid movement. His weapon was leveled at Ohlson.

Marcus froze he was standing in the open he had been facing the others, which made it that his back was to the lift. He thought he was dead, he heard the blast of a weapon.

He felt his heartbeat, he started to breathe again, he had not been hit, and then was no further shots from the man behind. He glanced at where he had believed his death was to come. The rope was swinging, but of the would-be killer there was no sign. He looked at the Augustus.

T'sella was moving her position, her weapon no longer aimed at the lift but at the door to the ladder.

Ohlson rallied himself and moved into a less vulnerable position.

Kausler caught his attention. She pointed at a small round object that she had removed from the bag. It was one of the Dominion mines they had found. She was now pointing at the source of the weapons' fire.

The commander nodded, and then indicated to d'Amatsu to get back to the ship. He moved himself back too. And left it that he was going to be able to shift all his body behind the airlock bulkhead if he had too. He then gave Kausler and Singh the okay sign.

She tapped the panel of the bomb, then, satisfied, she rose and ran near the still murderous fire, she swung her arm and tossed the bomb into the gap between the door and the wall, and then she dived backward.

Singh flattened himself to the floor. Colimo and Smith were already folded and under some kind of cover.

Marcus looked at the lifts, a rope was coming down from the left hand one. He started to raise his rifle.

He saw the legs, then the body.

The soldier was pulling his rifle around.

In the right hand lift another pair of legs were dropping into view.

Ohlson took aim at the moving figures.

The bomb exploded.

He had been expecting a loud bang, and a shake of the foundations, and perhaps the moment of disorientation.

What he got was much worse.

He was concentrating on the two, soon to be three, attackers. The blast seemed to slow things, and then they were gone.

The blast seemed to have the effect of closing the door, it actually sucked it shut, and then it blew it apart.

A piece scoured the window, it started a microfracture. The hiss of escaping air grew louder and louder as the polymer that comprised the window screamed to stay in place.

The atmosphere changed from a settled one with the smells of phaser and disruptor fire to one with no smell and screaming winds.

Ohlson felt the tug even where he was sited, it was pulling him into the station.

Colimo and Smith were starting to scramble to the Augustus, but were having a lot of difficulty.

Marcus tried to shout to them, but couldn't even hear himself so he gave up.

Sia was in the greatest of difficulties. It looked like he was unconscious. The suction was more intense at the lifts and it was dragging him along the floor towards them.

Gretchen Kausler had moved two to three meters nearer the ship in the jump she had done after throwing the bomb, now she was crawling to grab Sia's tunic and pull him away.

Smith pulled himself around the airlock and into the shelter of the Augustus, Ohlson saw the minor cuts and bruises that decorated the lieutenant's face as he passed.

Colimo had been behind Smith and had seen what was happening to Singh. He grabbed the other side from Kausler and together they pulled the hapless Indian mercilessly away from danger.

They were racing into the airlock and then there was only Ohlson and T'sella.

'Let's close the hatch.' Ohlson tried to right himself to get into the Augustus, but the suction from outside was growing at an enormous rate. He started to stagger back, and banged his head of the bulkhead, then two hands had his tunic and he was safe. He heard the whoosh of the hatch close and then a second or two as the minute change in atmospheric pressure was compensated for. The inner door opened and they were inside.

Sia was on his feet and shaking the fuzziness away.

'Thanks,' Ohlson patted T'sella's back as she headed to the engine room. He felt warmth on his forehead. He wiped it and came away with blood.

The rest of the crew was automatically resuming their stations.

Ohlson strode to the captain's chair. 'Hail the Gaunt, and get us away from the pylon.'

Devereaux had been told of the explosion. 'What happened?'

'Unsure, probably created a few microfractures than started the whole structure depressurizing. That was what it felt like at any rate.

Commodore Nilis was near the epicenter of the blast.'

'Sir?' Smith was at his console.

'Yes Lieutenant?'

'Lieutenant Overend was with him, they both attacked us.'

Ohlson faced Devereaux. 'Sorry to report such news sir.'

The captain made no comment about the fate of the two people, one of whom had been a trusted crewmember of the Hawaii. 'What injuries have your people sustained?'

Ohlson fought back the subconscious urge to wipe at his wound. 'None, at least serious, all are at their stations and ready to proceed, are you?'

Devereaux raised an eyebrow. 'Waiting for you Commander.'

'Where's the Shoeman?'

'Traveling on minimal thrusters, heading for the nearest fighter.'

'All right, follow him, and keep close. Prepare to initiate the beacon on my count.'

The screen went back to showing the moon, but instead of the pylon they were facing away and the two other ships were visible in front. Benko was moving slowly but surely away from the prison.

'Hail Commander Shirer.'


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine.

Shirer's face appeared on the viewscreen.

'Move to as close to the Shoeman as you can manage, but keep behind both the Gaunt and us. Prepare the beacon, and ready for the run.'

Shirer made no comment other than. 'We'll be ready, good luck Commander.'

'Good luck to you too Commander.'

The screen showed stars.

_It had_, he thought, _been necessary to break communication silence to get the operation commenced, but it was a risk. They were counting on the enemy not being able to differentiate between the trio of ships, and that meant making no discriminating communications that could betray them._

_'_Well,' he muttered to no one in particular, we'll soon see if our ruse is going to work or not.'

Lieutenant put us in front of the Shoeman, match its speed and course.'

Tambecki tapped her console the viewscreen showed the Augustus was catching up with the others, and then it was past them and heading rapidly to the Shoeman.

As they neared it the ship swerved.

'No response from its weapons, or shields,' reported Barret.

'Probably have none to speak of,' Smith was leaning into his console and setting in course calculations as the ship moved further away from the relative safety of the moon.

The Shoeman moved back to its original course. The Augustus was now slightly in front of the Shoeman and above it on its starboard side.

'They must know we don't intend to attack them now.' Mc Sorley watched the Shoeman, if they even got a phaser array working they would all be in a heap load of trouble.

'They have resumed what is the shortest course to the two static fighters.' Barret's voice reported matter-of-factly.

'Estimated time to the fighters, and where is the battleship?'

'Five minutes at this speed, and presuming they stay in where they are, the battleship, is not in sensor range.'

'What? That can't be, it has to be here...'

'It is,' Smith continued, 'it's on the Demon, I have its ion trail, too large to be a fighter and too new to be anything other than the battleship.'

Ohlson breathed a sigh of relief. When they started the plan it was important, if not crucial, that the battleship was close at hand. If it had been away from the vicinity and returned then it would have been in an excellent position to hurt down and destroy the Gaunt, the Caesar and the Augustus. That was assuming they did get past the two fighters that they were flying towards.

'Where are the others?'

'The Gaunt is fifty meters to the rear and seventy to the port side of the Shoeman.' Ohlson made a face, it would be better if the Gaunt was twenty or thereabouts meters closer to the Shoeman, but he wasn't able to communicate that to Devereaux, he hoped it wouldn't matter.

Mc Sorley continued. 'The Caesar is twenty-five meters directly to the rear of Captain Lu.'

'Four minutes and thirty seconds to the blockade,' announced Barret. She had a momentary thought that she had not considered the lawyer career for quite a while, maybe she had...

'One of them is hailing us.' It had been Smith who picked up the message.

'Which one?'

'The one to port, the nearest one to the Demon.'

Mc Sorley was correct, the ship nearest to the planet was hailing them but near, meant five minutes flying at full impulse, _and that might make all the difference,_ thought Ohlson..

'Do we answer?'

'Not yet.'

'No one is answering... Wait.' Smith read what the computer was telling him. 'The Shoeman is transmitting.'

'Open a hailing frequency, broadcast the message we took from the Shoeman database.'

Hope Barret taped her console. The computer initiated the broadcast of the homing signal that the Shoeman had been sending prior to its approach to the ambush.

'The Caesar and the Gaunt have copied.'

Ohlson greeted Smith's report with a small nod. _Now, we'll see if we've entered an element of confusion into the equation. _

Barret breathed a sigh of relief, it had been her responsibility to organize that the three ships were able to send out the signal she had copied from the Shoeman's transmitter.

'What are the fighters doing?'

'Nothing.'

Smith was having some trouble carrying out his allocated tasks, which was to locate the battleship and the Hawaii.

He knew where the Hawaii was, that was the easy bit, but the other ship was elusive. He had tracked it to the Demon, and had even been able to isolate some cloud patterns that indicated that a huge ship had flown through them, but as to where it was at this second. He ran another scan hoping that it would show him what he wanted.

Kausler waited, she knew what she was to do. They had came this far with shields and weapons off-line, hers was the task of initiating them on a moment's notice. She watched the viewscreen but kept her finger millimeters from the console.

Benko kept the Augustus ahead of the Shoeman, and tried not to let the fact that she was piloting them towards two Jem'Hadar assault fighters worry her - too much.

The Bolian had just finished overseeing a system's check on all primary computer controls, he was checking on where he would be able to reroute power from if they needed it. They still had no transporters.

In Engineering they were working on getting the transporters back. They had a coil to replace and they had started to replicate it some time ago.

'It'll be nearly an hour before we get that at this pace.'

Sia had to agree with d'Amatsu's estimation. 'Leave it, make sure the torpedoes are ready and that the phaser banks are connected.'

T'sella was at the weapons' console. 'We have eight torpedoes.'

'Eight? I thought we had more.'

'We did, but seven are unusable.'

'How come?'

T'sella pointed to the tube that connected the two firing points with the rack of torpedoes.

Sia followed her finger. There was a small dent in the conduit that held the weapons. He walked to it and ran his tricorder over the mark. He was wondering why a diagnostics check hadn't uncovered the problem. But his tricorder told him why. 'Go to the bridge,' he instructed T'sella, 'notify the captain that we've lost one of the torpedo tubes and seven of the torpedoes themselves.'

The Vulcan stood to comply.

'Three minutes.'

T'sella entered the bridge. 'Captain.'

'Yes?'

'Chief Singh told me to report to you that we have found some damage in one of the conduits carrying the torpedoes. It seems to have occurred during your assault on the Shoeman at close range.

We cannot use that tube or the seven torpedoes that feed from it.'

Ohlson took the news better than Mc Sorley.

'Seven, is there no way of extracting them and replacing then in the working tube?'

'No, we would need some heavy cutting tools that we do not have.'

'How many torpedoes do we have then?'

'Eight Captain.'

'Thank you T'sella, you may return to engineering. If we have eight then that's how many we'll have to rely on.'

'Two minutes and thirty seconds,' droned Barret.

They got to within one minute and fifty seconds to the blockade before the ships responded.

'The port ship has altered course, it's powering up its weapons.'

'Right then, here goes nothing,' Ohlson was sitting at the edge of his seat. 'Brace for incoming.

Lieutenant Tambecki, send us to that ship's port side on full thrusters.'

Benko nudged the Augustus until it moved a little more to the left than the other ships, then she boosted power to the thrusters and the ship jumped away from the Starfleet vessels and at a tangent to the Jem'Hadar.

'It hasn't done anything, probably trying to work out what we're doing.' Mc Sorley kept her eyes on the viewscreen.

There was a thud and the ship shuddered.

'The Gaunt has opened fire on us.' Barret sounded unconcerned by the events that were unfolding.

'They struck the hull, little damage.' Colimo tapped his controls to make certain all the power was still flowing to where it was supposed.

'Shields!'

Kausler had them raised as a second volley struck the rear of the speeding ship.

'The Gaunt has broken away from the Shoeman and is pursuing.'

Mc Sorley watched the viewscreen never taking her eyes from the slim figure of the nearest Jem'Hadar ship.

The Augustus rocked again.

'Shields holding, for the time being.'

'The Jem'Hadar is moving,' Mc Sorley's voice betrayed her excitement. 'It's moving towards US.'

'Keep the weapons off-line, don't change course.'

'It increased its speed, it'll reach us in one minute, it's already in weapons' range.' Barret didn't sound as calm as she had earlier.

Another shudder.

'Shields are down to ninety-eight percent.'

'Thirty seconds, the weapons' array is powering up.'

'Not yet... Not yet.'

The sleek enemy ship was filling the viewscreen. Ohlson could see the shimmer of energy that throbbed along its flanks.

'Fifteen...'

'It's firing... At the Gaunt!'

As Mc Sorley spoke the craft lifted to fly over the Augustus and at the pursuer. A twin pulse of disruptor fire skimmed over them and towards the other Starfleet vessel.

The second ship is moving, it's powering up and heading to the Shoeman.'

They were all but under the enemy ship.

'Power the weapons and fire!'

Kausler had been waiting, it took her two point two seconds to initiate the power to the weapons and to fire them.

The darts of energy struck the Jem'Hadar underside, then again. Ohlson saw the flashes of the shields as they were impacted.

'Torpedo the underside before it's out of range.'

A tremor announced the departure of the device. The range was short the target close. The accuracy was perfect. They were thrown around by the explosion, but managed to avoid the secondary explosion as the enemy disintegrated.

'Damage report!'

Colimo had already been working on that request. 'Shields at thirty percent, some power fluctuations coming from the engines, we've probably ruptured one of the nacelles.'

'Take us about.'

Tambecki turned the injured ship and then the viewscreen showed what was happening behind them.

The Jem'Hadar that had survived was turning its attention to the Gaunt. There were streams of plasma coming from the Shoeman, and the Gaunt was firing in self-defense.

'Debris hit the Shoeman, not the Jem'Hadar, the Gaunt has fifty percent shields, and the Jem'Hadar's are down to seventy.'

Two massive flashes filled the screen, Mc Sorley blinked away the spots to see what had happened.

Barret had kept a visual on the console. 'The Caesar has fired phasers, she's damaged, but so is the Jem'Hadar.' She looked again. 'The Shoeman is breaking up.'

On the viewscreen Mc Sorley could see the Shoeman, it was in terminal agony and then it was gone. It seemed like the torpedo attack on the Jem'Hadar had inflicted major damage to its warp core. The explosion sent a blast wave into all the ships in the vicinity.

The buffeting was least on the Augustus.

As Ohlson righted himself, he saw that Kausler was still in command of the weapons. She was hitting the enemy with continuous bursts.

Another streak of energy entered the screen from above them, it targeted the Jem'Hadar too. Then the enemy was blasting and spiraling into the sky, then it exploded.

'Thank Commander Shirer for his assistance.'

Commander Shirer was busy at that moment.

'Shields are down to fifteen percent, the starboard thruster is misfiring and three were injured, all broken bones, in that last exchange.' Ensign Hollis finished his report.

'Great,' muttered Shirer, 'hail the Gaunt.'

'...And that's about the lot, we'll never make it out of this solar system, never mind the distance to Federation space.'

Devereaux looked grim. 'Then I see no alternative, we'll have to recapture the Hawaii.'

Ohlson listened, when Devereaux finished speaking he rubbed his check then spoke. 'We thought it'd be difficult to take on the two fighters, and the battleship how you are planning to recapture the Hawaii and take on the rest of their fleet.'

'That's about it Commander,' agreed Devereaux.

'Can you deal with the Caesar and the Hawaii for the time being on your own?'

'What do you intend doing while we do that?'

'We still need to get that battleship out of the equation.'

There was a pause.

'Very well Commander Ohlson, we'll head for the last coordinates of the Hawaii and attempt to board her and get her out of there. We hope you'll join us soon.

We won't be able to search for you if we succeed, we'll have hardly enough firepower to get away.'

'I understand, good luck Captain.'

The viewscreen showed the Demon.

The Augustus was heading to the last known position of the enemy battleship. Behind them, the Gaunt was leading the Caesar to the Hawaii, the ships were parting company as their targets were on opposite sides of the planet.

'Here we go again,' Mc Sorley sounded resigned.

'We are fifteen thousand kilometers from its last know location,' Barret was scanning her readouts. 'If we go in this direction we'll be following it.'

'At what range would we expect to detect it?'

'A kilometer, perhaps, it all depends on the local conditions at the time.' Smith was punching the flight plan on to Mc Sorley's as he spoke.

The planet grew larger.

'Fire a torpedo on to the planet, try to hit one of those seismic faults Lieutenant Smith give any coordinates to Yeoman Kausler.'

Smith did as he was told. 'I have none to give her.

I don't know this section of the planet.'

'Okay, Yeoman Kausler fire one torpedo to explode on impact when you're ready.'

A few seconds passed, then the ship trembled slightly as the torpedo left the ship.

In the screen they watched as the glowing dot plunged into the clouds, then it vanished.

'Don't go too close to it yet Ben, I want to get their attention not be destroyed in the blast.'

There was a tiny flash amid the swirls of green, then nothing.

'Is that it?' asked Mc Sorley.

'Not on your life,' commented Smith, 'it takes a while for a crust to crack.'

Then they saw it, an area fifty or so times larger than the explosion's epicenter glowed and shimmered a red hue, then a smaller point in the middle, which blinked between red and yellow, replaced it.

'That's an eruption, if there's anything near that they'll know what caused it - if they survived.'

They entered the atmosphere away from the blast center but still en route to the battleship or where they thought it had headed.

The clouds filled the screen and they were blind.

'I'm reading a great deal more structural instability than before.'

'Did we cause it?' asked Ohlson.

'Yes,' answered Alex. 'I'll sure we did.

This planet is a bit closer to blowing apart.'

'Did we destroy anything in that blast?' Mc Sorley was feeding navigational data to Tambecki.

'No way of knowing, we might detect damaged vessels, but nothing will remain of any ship near the center of that blast.'

'Will the planet destroy itself?' Tambecki kept her eyes on the console looking for any clues that the sensors could give her that the battleship, or anything else, was near.

'No, it will, or to be accurate could, blow a section of its atmosphere away. But more than likely it'll crack the mantle and make for a few decades of seismic activity and structural rearrangement.' Smith sat back. 'That's as far as I've been able to track it. We're in unknown territory from here.'

They found the battleship seven minutes later.

Devereaux watched as the Augustus disappeared behind the ever-moving cloud formations of the planet.

The tremors and glimmer from the planet's broken crust was visible even if the Augustus was not.

'Why'd he do that?'

Doctor Rolands posed the question, after seeing all his patients had been made comfortable in the ready room, he had came to the bridge.

'He's rattling their cages,' said Devereaux, 'I'd doubt there was a single Jem'Hadar ship on the planet that doesn't know that the Augustus has arrived.'

'Won't that make his task that bit more difficult?'

'Probably,' agreed the captain, 'on the one hand it may have destroyed a few of those twenty odd ships, but it'll move them away from where we're going.'

'Oh,' Rolands realized what the captain meant, that the Augustus had just opened a window for the others to go through.

'Course set in Captain,' Commander Steeling was at the helm.

'Ready on weapons, I doubt whether they wish us to have our ship back without a fight.' He looked about him. His crew was in reasonable shape considering what they had been through. Reflexes were a little sluggish, and some were still rattled from their experiences. But, they were his crew and they had some experience at serving with each other.

'Three minutes until we are within sensor range of the Hawaii,' even Schelling sounded nervous.

There was a palpable air of tension on the bridge.

'Open a channel to the...' for a moment he couldn't remember the name of the ship, 'the Caesar.'

Shirer's face appeared on the screen.

'We have no plan as such, Jake, so once we get in do all you can to get into the docking bay and then try to take the ship.

That's what we'll be doing too, only I'd guess we'll have a few escorts to hassle before we can land.'

'Very good sir, see you on the bridge.'

The screen went back to the clouds, they now filled the screen.

The minutes passed.

'Are those three minutes up yet Commander Steeling?'

'Yes sir.'

'Slow to quarter impulse.'

The Gaunt slowed, it made no difference to what was on the viewscreen.

'Anything on sensors?'

'There is something one point two kilometers eighty degrees off our starboard side... It's large.' The woman on ops stared at her console. 'It is the Hawaii. The shields are down.'

'Thank you Sonnerson, is there anything else there?'

'No, not in... Wait, there is one fighter coming at us, from one three four mark one. It's powering its weapons.'

'They no doubt were the Hawaii's shields and now they're returning from investigating the Augustus ' little fireworks display. Ready on phasers!'

Hollis kept his finger poised. He had already locked in the coordinates of the approaching danger. The computer was now following it from sensory data.

'There's a second one directly behind it,' Sonnerson made a face. 'Make that two others, and they're all headed our way.'

'Fire!'

Shirer had already been told of the impeding battle. The Gaunt was racing to the Jem'Hadar, there was nothing in the direct line to the Hawaii, although it was pointed in the wrong direction.

'Full power to the engines, take us directly to the shuttle bay.'

'Sir?'

'What is it O'Halloran?'

'If we're heading straight in why not empty the phasers we've no other use for them, they may give the captain some room to maneuver and they may even hit something?'

'Good idea Tom,' to the lieutenant on tactical, he said fire whenever you see something worth firing at.'

She quickly responded to his instructions.

Hollis fired three bursts of phaser fire, the first gleamed as it hit the enemy shields, the second swept over it and the third caused another flare of the defenses.

'They've fired!'

Devereaux was watching the screen. The forward Jem'Hadar was easily recognizable, those coming behind were blurs at best. 'Who's fired?'

'The Caesar.'

As Sonnerson answered five pulses of energy sped over the Gaunt, then another five. They screamed into the attacking ships.

The screen was filled with flashes and colours.

'Fire torpedoes!'

Hollis added the Gaunt's weapons to the melee. He fired four torpedoes, hoping that the Gaunt was not too close in case they impacted, then he fired another four for good measure. He half expected a telling-off from Devereaux, but none came.

There was several white flashes, they filled the screen and caused those on the bridge to cover their eyes. Then the blast wave struck them.

The Caesar had reached the Hawaii.

Shirer watched as the sleek lines of the Nebula class starship came fully into view. 'Is she spaceworthy?'

O'Halloran had already scanned the ship with that question in mind. 'As far as these sensors tell me yes, they haven't touched the engines and it seems to still have a full weapons' array.

There are also life signs on board, thirty-two.'

Shirer stared at the ship. _Thirty-two, there wasn't even thirty-two weapons on the Caesar._

'Sir?'

Shirer brought his attention back to O'Halloran. 'Keep us on course, we're taking it back.'

The Caesar sluggishly turned to bring itself in line with the Hawaii's shuttle bay, which was located between the nacelles and below the saucer section. They dipped as they headed towards the closed doors of the bay.

'Any phasers left?'

'A little.'

'Aim at those doors, I don't think the enemy will be opening them voluntarily do you?'

'There is a Jem'Hadar approaching.'

'Forget it.'

'It's fired.'

The shuttle bay was getting closer, then the tube-like ship shook as disruptor tore into its hull.

'Two breeches, we have casualties.' O'Halloran was righting himself and trying to keep the ship on course.

'Damage report!' Devereaux had trouble seeing with the spots in front of his eyes.

'Forward shields are none existent, power supply has been interrupted life support will fail soon, the engines are working at half power.' There was an explosion as a console behind Devereaux exploded. An ensign was thrown to the floor.

'Doctor!'

'I'm right on it,' Rolands was over to the injured man and administering aid before Devereaux had gotten his breathing back.

'Never mind us then, what of the enemy?'

'Sensors are down, we only have visual.'

He looked, the screen was still showing swirls of greenish yellow clouds, but scattered throughout them was spinning debris. _How many ships?_

_No time to worry about that. _'Take us back to the Hawaii as fast as you can.'

The Gaunt turned and doubled back, behind it a sleek fighter emerged from the twisting mass of broken ships and exploded torpedoes. It had a stream of plasma coming from one of its nacelles, but it seemed to be gliding purposively through the clouds and catching up with the wounded Gaunt.

'Fire!'

The phasers cut through the unshielded bay doors rapidly, Shirer could see the pieces of rubble tumble out from the depressurized bay. He knew that the emergency force field would be erected inside a second and then the bay would be able again to support life.

'The doors are open. We've lost engines.''

'Prepare for a crash landing, and brace for impact!'

He had no idea of whether or not his warning would do those on board any good or not, but he had to do it.

The elongated ship fell gracefully into the gapping hole that led into the bay. Shirer gripped his chair. The floor zoomed up, then they hit it.

The jolt knocked him to the floor, he felt his ribs get slammed by something, or someone. The lights flickered and then died.

'Get us inside as gently as possible, aim everything we have at that ship, we need time.'

'They're inside!'

Devereaux had been about to ask for a status report on the now landed Caesar, but then he realized that information had not came from the sensors but from the viewscreen.

'It's coming at us.'

True enough the newest arrival was coming straight at them.

'Can we get in before it reaches us?'

'Yes, if we go in fast.'

'Then do it.'

The lights flickered and then came on again.

'Report!'

There was the sound of people scrambling to their feet and several coughs and groans.

'Report!' repeated Shirer as he suppressed a groan of his own.

O'Halloran's voice sounded painful. 'We're in the bay, the viewscreen is off-line, we have three hull breeches, and...' he moaned again. 'To cut a long story short we aren't going anyway soon.'

'Have we sensors, or weapons?

'No to sensors, but there's still s little power for phasers, but no targeting mechanism.'

There seemed like nothing else for it. Shirer stood. 'Open the hatches and everyone out. Doctor take your team and see to the injured, all able-bodied and walking wounded assemble outside we still have a ship to win back.'

The hatch sprung open with a clatter. The people in the main hull who were able ran or hobbled into the dusty and dim shuttle bay.

The Caesar had just been long enough to get into the bay and it had crushed a shuttle that had been parked there. It was lying with the front of the ship pointed at the main exit doors of the bay. The smoke from the fire that had broken out from the resulting crash obscured most of the surroundings.

Shirer and O'Halloran arrived as the others were organizing themselves.

'There are eighteen weapons sir,' reported a junior lieutenant with blood stains on her arm, and about twenty to thirty others that can continue.'

_Less than fifty able to fight, out of a total of ninety,_ he dismissed any speculation on the state of the remainder. 'Form four teams, make sure there are six weapons per group, when we get out of here split up.

I'll take one to the bridge.

O'Halloran you take engineering.'

The lieutenant bowed his head in acknowledgment

'The others can sweep the ship for the enemy.'

The junior lieutenant had already formed one group and was coaxing the rest into selecting the others. Shirer was watching her, he was trying to put a name to the grime-encrusted girl.

'Ready sir.'

'It's Shishigina, isn't it?'

She seemed pleased that he knew her. 'Irina Shishigina sir, I was attached to sensor maintenance.'

He remembered. 'Right then, let's go.'

They moved en mass to the exit doors.

They hadn't reached them when they opened and two Dominion soldiers commenced to fire into the confined space of the bay.

'Keep her steady!'

He knew that was easier said than done while they were being fired at.

'Rear shields at seventeen per cent.'

Another wave of disruptor pulled at the descending ship.

Someone got off a shot then the Dominion soldiers withdrew into the corridor.

A lieutenant in a red uniform reopened the door and fired into it before being forced to retreat.

'They're going to hold us here until reinforcements come,' O'Halloran spoke through his teeth and held his side the whole time. He saw Shirer look at him. 'I'm fine, just you think up a way of getting us out of the damn shuttlebay.'

Shirer had done that already. 'Move everyone to the side of the Caesar, any side but away from the front,' then he was up and running back to the Caesar.

He ran through the hatch and jumped over the injured and the medics, he reached the tactical station.

The phaser was still powered, he checked it. He saw Rolands. 'Doctor, I need you. Run to the hatch let me know if the front of the ship is clear of people.'

Rolands looked like he was about to question the order then thought better of it and ran to do as he had been asked. 'It's clear, but I...'

Shirer fired the Caesar's phasers.

O'Halloran was leaning against the port side of the ex-Cardassian tanker when he heard the sound of the phasers coming on. He watched as the pulse from the weapon located above the main section hit the wall of the corridor where the Dominion troops were situated. The bright glow of the phaser sent sparks pouring from the plating of the wall.

The wall glowed and then exploded, showering that side of the bay with white-hot pieces of bulkhead.

The smoke level had increased, and then Shirer appeared. 'Out, everyone that is able get out. My group stays with me. O'Halloran take the rear.'

With that the ex-crew of the Caesar entered the Hawaii proper. The ten-man squad who had been holding the exit from the shuttlebay was all lying dead as Shirer's section ran over them.

'One hundred meters...

Ninety...

Seventy-five...'

'Fire reverse thrusters, we're going in too fast.'

The engines ignited and the Gaunt tugged a resistance to its descent.

'Sixty...

Fifty...

Thirty-five...'

The ships trembled under another assault.

'Keep on course,' ordered the captain. 'Brace for impact!'

There was no other altitude counts. The viewscreen showed the mess that had been made of the doors to the shuttlebay, it also showed the wreck of the Caesar, and the added bits of debris that littered the landing site. _Too late now,_ thought Devereaux, he clung to his chair and hoped that Schellinger was as good a pilot as his record stated.

The commander hit the reverse thrusters once more before the ship entered the smoke filled bay.

Rolands was kneeling beside a dead lieutenant. in what had been the main section of the tubular ship He had no idea of the man's name. He pushed any thoughts of loss and dejection away and stood to find another patient, unfortunately under the circumstances he had loads from which to choose.

The plates he was walking on moved, he grabbed the wall to stop himself from falling.

The air was filled with noise, metal screeching and plates being torn, crashes of falling and tortured bulkheads. The Caesar jerked again, and this time Rolands couldn't save himself.

It was over, there was a moment's silence, and then he could hear. people were yelling, coughing and moving. He stood and surveyed the state of the Caesar.

There had been a row of injured, they were still there but some were moving, others lay still. The two medics that had been assigned to him where both picking themselves up from the floor.

Someone rushed inside and called for him.

He subconsciously grabbed the meager supplies that he had and followed the unknown caller.

The scene that greeted him in the shuttlebay was one of utter confusion.

The Gaunt had entered the bay to one side of the Caesar but had still clipped it on passing. The ship had not buried itself in the rear wall of the bay but had came to a halt meters from the bulkhead. Plates from the already damaged surface of the landing zone were buckled and twisted in grotesque shapes around the nose of the Gaunt.

Three dirty uniformed people were in the process of extinguishing a fire that was coming from the underside of the newly crashed vehicle. The smoke was dense around the wreck, but Rolands could see the entrance ramp falling. He took a step towards it to offer assistance.

The tactical station was a mess. Ensign Hollis was pulling himself from under where the chair had pinned him.

'Everyone out!' yelled Devereaux. He felt a stabbing pain coming from his side. _No doubt a broken rib, but that can wait. _'Nice landing Commander, now get the crew out and organize the retaking of our ship.'

Steeling stood a little groggily but managed a smile of sorts. Then he was off the bridge.

Devereaux scanned the area. There were no bodies, Hollis was almost free.

'Can I help you sir?'

'No thank you Ensign, turn off the power in case of fires and let's get out.'

Hollis disengaged the power to tactical and to the engines from the ops station, and then he followed Captain Devereaux. It looked to him that the captain was not using his left arm much, it was static against his side. Then he saw the figure of Rolands, he was checking a lieutenant who was seated alongside the ship.

Devereaux was past him. 'Everyone with a weapon follow me.'

Those that he had called moved purposively toward the newly created exit from the shuttlebay.

_A hell of a way to go Commander Shirer_, thought Devereaux as he led his squad into the ship.

'Fire!'

The Augustus was having trouble with the battleship.

They had found it with little trouble, or to be more accurate the battleship had found them. The first clue they had was when the forward shields glared and then the whole ship juddered under the force of a salvo of disruptors. Only Tambecki's skill at maneuvering the ship at low level between the mists and swirls of the planet had prevented the Dominion ship from getting a killing strike.

Now the Augustus was moving as close to the surface of the Demon as Tambecki could get. Behind them loomed the massive shape of the Dominion battleship.

'It's trying to get above the clouds,' Barret was tracking the chaser through the sensors.

'Keep it low, if we can hit it with a surface eruption it'll only work if the ship is right on top of the explosion.

Kausler fire another torpedo.'

They heard the whoosh as a torpedo, their third, they were down to three left. The missile ploughed through the swirls and mist. They felt the blast wave and saw the tiniest of flares from the center of the viewscreen that had been directed rearward.

'No damage, probably rocked them a bit at this range, they are staying low.'

'Lieutenant Smith, find me somewhere to lure that thing before it catches us.'

'Fifty-six kilometers directly ahead,' he punched in the spot to a map on Mc Sorley's console. She would be the one to guide Tambecki.

'How long unt...'

Ohlson's question was cut off as another blast sent a shudder through the Augustus.

'At this speed, about three minutes, maybe four.'

'How's the engine holding out Lieutenant Singh?'

The voice over the combadge sounded rushed and busy. 'We've a minor fire down here, but other than a lot a stresses it'll hold. We do have only three torpedoes left though.'

_I know,_ thought Ohlson _I know._ 'No, we don't, we have ten.'

'Yes,' Mc Sorley had finished scanning the battleship for _flaws that had been a joke_, the report in her readouts described a more formidable ship than even a Galaxy class starship. She was at a loss to think of a way they could defeat the leviathan. 'But seven aren't usable.'

'Not as torpedoes,' agreed Ohlson. 'Sia.'

'Yes captain?'

'Can you unload them?'

'Yes, but it'll be a minute or two for each of them.'

'Do it, and take them to the airlock.'

Mc Sorley looked at Ohlson. 'Am I correct to think that you intend 'throwing' them out the airlock at that ship?'

'Any better suggestions will be gratefully accepted.'

None where forthcoming.

The ship twisted and threw Ohlson against the arm of his chair, then it was righted again.

A string of energy from the Dominion disruptor strobed to their left. Tambecki sent the Augustus to the opposite direction then back again as the battleship's gunner tried to second guess where they were going.

It took the trio in engineering one minute and five seconds to get the torpedo out of its allocated slot.

They had to cut the rear section from the buckled tube, Sia had done that in record time, and it wasn't the neatest of jobs. He had done it amid the knocks and twists that the evasive maneuverings had brought. Then the plate fell to the floor.

d'Amatsu had the first of the torpedoes, he carried the crate-sized object to the airlock.

T'sella was manhandling the next out of the tube and pulling it for all she was worth. It was stuck.

d'Amatsu reached the airlock opened the inner door and deposited the missile near the outer one. He returned to engineering as fast as he could.

Sia was talking to Ohlson as he entered. 'Sorry captain, but we can only get you one of those torpedoes. There is another buckled plate further inside the tube, there's no way we can get around it and cutting it too close to the torpedo would only be asking for an explosion.' He saw Mico's nod. 'There's one in the airlock now.'

'That'll have to do,' Ohlson rubbed his face. He had hoped for a larger arsenal than that he had got at his command. But, the three to fire and one to toss would have to do.

'They're trying to rise again.'

'Fire another to keep them down.'

Tambecki tried to steady the ship so Kausler could get a fix on the enemy's position.

Ohlson watched the viewscreen, the dim outline of the massive ship was still coming towards them. The whoosh and then the explosion of the torpedo just above it did nothing to alter its trajectory.

'We shaved a couple of percentile points off its forward shields with that one, but little else.' Smith ran his hand through his hair. 'We're twenty seconds to that fault.'

'Ready another.' _What the hell,_ thought Ohlson, _it wasn't as if they'd any more options. _'Fire the last two, one at the ship and the other into that fault.'

His hand poised over the release switch for the outer door of the airlock.

'Give me a countdown Mister Smith.'

'Eight...

Seven...

Six...

Five...

Four...

Three, two, one.'

'Fire!'

The Augustus rocked as the dual firing mechanisms engaged.

Ohlson was momentarily unbalanced, then he slapped the panel of the airlock door. 'Yeoman, target the torpedo we jettisoned.

Kausler was unbalanced too, she tried to lock on to the tumbling object the computer got it, then lost it, then...

The battleship was rising. It had risen almost five degrees. It had finally chosen to ignore the pinpricks that the Augustus was inflicting and rose to get above the irritant so that it could destroy the injured enemy.

Ohlson watched in horror as the giant ship rose away from the plant. Ten degrees. He saw the explosion on the planet's surface that indicated the fault had been struck. The ship was still rising rapidly. The second torpedo hit the nose of the vessel, there was a flash of white.

The screen cleared. The ship was still rising. Fifteen degrees.

'Shields at seventy-five percent.'

It had failed, the ship was going away from the surface.

There was a red glow from beneath the hull. The volcanic eruption had occurred. The ship didn't even notice.

Kausler found the torpedo. She fired.

There was another explosion, this one beneath and to the back of the rising ship and the giant twisted.

They were about a kilometer from the Dominion battleship they watched with a kind of awe as they saw the event unfold.

The torpedo had exploded under the rear of the ship, for whatever reason, the blast threw the ship back towards the planet. It could have been an error in the pilot's part; it could have been that the guidance system had been damaged in the multiple explosions.

It didn't matter, the result was the same.

The giant dived and then tried to rectify the movement.

It almost succeeded. The nose pulled up, as they came level the port wing was caught by a rock, the impact threw the ship in the opposite direction.

The starboard wing crunched into the surface, then parted company with the ship.

The speed of the dying giant was bringing it ever closer to the Augustus.

'Take us up!' ordered Ohlson.

The other wing took another blow, the ship spun on its head. Flames could be seen even through the limited visibility. It was gaining on them.

Tambecki slammed the nose up, and put full power to the thrusters. It seemed like ages until the ship responded.

The giant was nothing but a rolling mass of flame and explosions, and the wall of flame and debris got nearer.

'Brace for impact!'

The Augustus was rising, the blast wave from the dying battleship caught them and flung them helplessly in its wake.

The lights went out.

Ohlson fell. There was a crashing sound. He thought he lost consciousness for a moment. Mc Sorley was on her side.

Smith tried to keep in his chair but tumbled out, hit the wall and blacked out.

Tambecki saw nothing, perhaps she had lost consciousness too. Then she felt the controls still in her hands. She pulled them, and then realized that she didn't know what she was pulling the ship into so she stopped.

The viewscreen was blank.

d'Amatsu was hanging on to the side of his console, from where he was he could see the others. Singh was hurt but still awake. T'sella was lying awkwardly, Mico guessed she had a broken leg, at least.

The ship was still spinning, the interior lights blinked then settled to dim. Sparks flew from three different sources. Colimo looked at his console, it was dead. He felt his head. There was a bump below his left eye he had no idea of how he had got it.

Barret kept her eyes shut. The pain from her side was excruciating. _Which_, she thought,_ was a good thing, if it hurt then it was probably a good bet I'm still alive_. She tried to get up, and then decided it was easier to stay where she was.

The ship stopped spinning.

Kausler was out of her seat. She slapped Ohlson on the face, he moaned but opened one eye that would sport a black bruise later. She went to slap him again.

'Enough,' it was weak, but he was rising from the floor, albeit slowly. 'Status?' he croaked.

Gretchen looked around the bridge, and then she stood and went to the tactical station. She tapped the console a few times before speaking. 'We have lost thrusters, weapons, sensors, shields and communications.

There is no response from engineering.

No hull breeches but we've lost life support too. All primary power conduits have been ruptured, and,' she added without changing the tone of her voice, 'probably all the auxiliary ones too.'

'Any good news?' he was pulling himself into his chair, his right arm was aching but he didn't think it was broken.

_'_No,' she thought again, 'except that the battleship is probably destroyed.'

'Probably?'

'Can't see for certain, and the sensors are gone. But if it wasn't destroyed then it would probably be pounding us as I speak.' She played some more with the console. The viewscreen flickered, then blurred. A distorted picture appeared, it was fuzzy and every so often went blank for a second or two, but they had some link with the outside. 'It's the forward view, every other one is off-line.'

'Check the others.'

Kausler went to Mc Sorley first, she was the nearest.

'Alive, no obvious injuries.' She walked to Benko.

'I'm fine,' she blinked away the pain and checked the controls. 'I'm getting no response, we've lost navigation and steering.' She rubbed her stomach were it had banged into the console housing. _There'll be a bruise there tomorrow,_ she thought, _if we have a tomorrow._

Smith was up and limped over to Barret. 'Stay where you are ensign.'

'Like I was going somewhere.'

'Sarcasm under the circumstances is a good thing, I think you'll live.' He found his medical tricorder and checked her. 'Four ribs broken, no internal bleeding, as I said, you'll live.'

'Thanks.' groaned Barret easing herself up. 'Now help me into my seat.'

'There's no need...'

'Lieutenant Smith, I'd much rather in at my post than on the floor, if it's all right with you.'

Smith didn't bother arguing, he helped lift the injured ensign into her seat. It must have been more painful, but it seemed to make her fell better. He turned to Colimo.

The Bolian waved him away. 'Cuts and bruises, nothing more.'

Ohlson was in the captain's chair. He was trying to think of what he could do. He tapped the console on the armrest, it verified everything Kausler had told him. basically, the ship was dead.

Smith was at Mc Sorley. He ran his medical scanner over her. 'She'll have to get to a hospital, there's internal bleeding.'

The captain looked at Smith. He said nothing, there was nothing he could think of to say.

At the moment d'Amatsu arrived on the bridge. 'Captain, I couldn't get through over the communications.'

Ohlson waved away any further explanations. 'What's the status in engineering Ensign?'

'Ensign T'sella has a broken leg, I have no idea of what else, she's unconscious. Lieutenant Singh says he's fine, but he's not. Cuts and bruises, and I'd guess a possibility of some broken ribs, but he wouldn't let me check him out.'

'What's the possibility of repairing thrusters and life support from engineering?'

He licked his lips. 'None, everything fused or melted, the blast destroyed more systems than we have the parts or time to repair.

We may not even be able to keep the power running for much longer.' He decided not to mention the smell of burning circuits and melted conduits that permeated engineering. Singh had sent him to the bridge as he pulled smoldering panels open to ensure that a major fire didn't break out.

Ohlson looked at the viewscreen with its foggy and indistinct picture of the exterior. The burred images of clouds and even more clouds met his gaze, then he saw the shadow. It started as small and in the bottom right corner of the viewer. It grew.

He wasn't the only one who had noticed it. Gretchen was tapping her console. She was unable to even bring on-line the merest of phasers, they were without shields and without weapons. She fought to keep her shoulders from slouching.

'What is it?' moaned Barret. 'I can't...' then she realized they already knew she had no sensors. It didn't matter, no one asked her for her opinion.

The shadow seemed irregular and getting larger.

Brace for impact seemed like a redundant option so Ohlson dismissed his original thought to shout it. He wondered when the blow would land. If they had scanned them they knew how defenseless the Augustus was.

The ship shook, Smith fell back on to the floor, Barret winced. Ohlson wasn't certain but he thought Mc Sorley mumbled something too.

Then... nothing. The shadow stayed where it was, then they were moving.

'It must be tractoring us towards it.' Kausler sounded confused not worried.

'Tractoring? Do they want us as prisoners?' Tambecki tried not to move too much, it hurt.

Marcus sat back, it was more comfortable than leaning forward, at least once the body got used to the new position. He wondered what he had to destroy. _Nothing_,_ the dying Dominion ship had cleared their computer of any important documentation, not that Nilis, Lu and the others wouldn't have had access to more confidential material than their personal logs._

'Why isn't the figure getting larger?'

Smith answered Barret's question. 'It's moving us to the rear so with our limited vision we aren't able to follow the procedure.'

The lines increased momentarily on the screen.

'Make the rest comfortable Lieutenant Smith, we don't even have the option of self-destruct at this time.'

'Very good sir,' Alex walked to Mc Sorley she was breathing harshly. He moved her gently so that she was lying in a less awkward angle to the console. 'Permission to go to engineering?'

'Go,' Ohlson watched as Smith went to look at T'sella and Singh and see what he could do for them.

'It's getting bigger.'

Ohlson looked at the screen, Barret was correct, the shadow was now taking up a third of the view.

Marcus turned his head slightly, he looked at Tambecki, then back at the screen. 'It would appear that news of our impending imprisonment was somewhat premature.'

Barret heard him but didn't understand.

Tambecki frowned, glanced at Ohlson than back to the screen. She laughed.

Gretchen joined them seconds later.

Barret and d'Amatsu stared at the two laughing women, their captain was smiling.

'Am I missing something?'

'Yes, Ensign d'Amatsu, let me introduce to you,' he waved one hand at the viewscreen.

Mico and Hope followed the gesture.

'The U.S.S. Hawaii, a Nebula class starship.'

'The Hawaii?'

'And I think it safe to assume that if it were under Dominion control then we would be bits and pieces orbiting the Demon at this stage.' He grinned. 'It appears that Captain Devereaux has retaken command of his ship.'

The Augustus was another five minutes in transit to the shuttlebay of the Hawaii.

Devereaux had the wreck of the Caesar jettisoned so they could bring the other craft on board.

The airlock hissed as the pressure equalized, then the doors were open. Ohlson was the first out.

'Nice to see you again Commander Ohlson,' Shirer held his right hand out.

Marcus took it. He looked around at the debris and damage of the shuttlebay.

'We had a few problems before we retook the ship.'

'I need a doctor.'

Shirer nodded and then Ohlson saw the blue uniformed figure of Doctor Rolands come from behind Shirer and enter the Augustus with two other medics, one of whom was Sam Lockhead.

'What is the ship's status?'

'Transporters are down, weapons are minimal, but we do have full power and as we speak we're heading to Starbase 283 at warp nine point nine.

Captain Devereaux is on the bridge and awaiting your arrival.'

Ohlson nodded. 'I'll go there as soon as I see my crew has received the...'

'Commander,' interrupted Shirer, 'they'll be fine. I'll stay and see that they are. You go and visit the bridge.'

Ohlson paused. Kausler appeared at the doorway. She was helping Barret walk. He nodded agreement to Shirer and walked off.

'Oh Ohlson?'

He turned back to Shirer.

'Well done with the battleship, we picked by the readings of the fight.'

Ohlson acknowledged the man and then proceeded to the wrecked corridor and the nearest turbolifts. In minutes he entered the bridge of the Hawaii. Devereaux was in the captain's chair. A couple of officers were handing him data padds.

He turned as the lift doors heralded the new arrival. 'Nice to see you again Commander.' He picked up one of the padds. 'Here's Doctor Rolands' assessment of your crew. I thought you'd be worried.'

Ohlson approached the captain and took the proffered padd. He read it.

Mc Sorley was the most injured. She had concussion, a punctured lung and a fractured cheekbone. T'sella's leg was broken as was her left arm. Singh had some kidney damage and a hairline fracture in his wrist. Barret - he knew her injuries from Smith's assessment - Colimo, Tambecki, Kausler, Smith and d'Amatsu had cuts and bruises.

All were receiving treatment and, the report concluded, none were in any danger.

He handed the pad back to Devereaux. 'Thank you Captain.'

'Now,' Devereaux took another padd form O'Halloran this time, 'go to sickbay and have Doctor Rolands look at you.' He held his hand up to stop my protest. 'I need all the crew I can get Commander, so as soon as you get seen then the sooner you can assist in manning this ship and getting us home.

I hope I can count on the cooperation of yourself and your crew?'

'Of course you can Captain.'

'Very good then, dismissed.'

Ohlson was heading back to the turbolifts when he heard Devereaux again. 'That was one helluva fight with the battleship Commander, well done.'

'You didn't do badly yourself getting this back,' commented Ohlson.

The turbolift was closing its door when he heard Devereaux. 'That's true, that's true.'

Ohlson was checked, cleared and talking to his crew inside ten minutes.

They were all in sickbay. The room was full, Rolands had given them five minutes and then they had to leave. All that is except Mc Sorley and T'sella who had to stay.

'I know I can still...'

'Hush, Commander, you're going nowhere so just lie back and relax. Let the rest of us get you to 283.'

Mc Sorley pulled a face but said nothing.

Ohlson looked at the others. Bandages covered bits of Colimo, Tambecki and Singh, but other than that there was little sign of what they had been through. 'We've to report to Commander Shirer for reassignment.'

Barret shifted uncomfortably.

'We will be together again at 283, for debriefing, and...' he was going to use the word reassignment again then thought better of it. He coughed. 'I did want to tell you that I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. No captain could have asked for and received as much from a crew as I got from you.'

The others looked uneasy.

'It's been an honour sir.' Mc Sorley broke the silence. The rest muttered similar sentiments.

'Thank you,' Barret addressed her remarks to everyone present, 'the academy doesn't tell you as much as I thought it did. It has been...' she searched for the appropriate word and failed to find it.

'Enough,' Singh raised his hand, 'I think it's time we get back to the task of getting out of this.'

Shirer met them outside sickbay. He'd been waiting for them to emerge.

'Lieutenants Singh, and d'Amatsu, report to Commander O'Halloran in engineering.' They left.

'Chief Colimo, and Yeoman Kausler report to Lieutenant Sovacs in security. Lieutenant Smith you're with Doctor Rolands.' Smith spun round and reentered the sickbay.

'Lieutenant Tambecki report to the shuttlebay.'

When the others had left Shirer turned to Ohlson, and Barret. 'You two can report to the bridge. You have Ops Ensign, and Commander Ohlson is the new Second Officer.'

They were on the bridge in a few minutes. Barret felt spoiled at all the extras that the Hawaii had to offer by way of sensors. She realized that she missed the cramped and limited console of the Augustus.

Ohlson sat to Devereaux's left.

'We should be at the rendezvous coordinates that you supplied for the Osprey in fifteen minutes Commander, albeit somewhat on the late side.'

They took fourteen minutes.

'Nothing,' reported Hope. 'I scanned for residual traces of any ship.

There has been nothing here for weeks.'

Devereaux put the ship on full alert, crews worked flat out for the next twenty-four hours fixing systems and preparing for combat. They were at one quarter of their optimal manpower, but they were still a formidable crew.

Radio silence was maintained, the ship was strong but still had no wish to initiate an attack.

At the end of the twenty-four hours Devereaux gave the order to leave the rendezvous point. 'put in a direct course to Starbase 283, Warp seven, engage.'

The ship paused, the warp core engaged and a bubble of subspace enveloped the ship. Then the ship moved forward, it was heading rapidly in the direction of the nearest Starbase and the headquarters of the Fourth Fleet.

'It should take us another thirty hours to reach the base.' Devereaux seemed nervous.

No one said anything about the possibility that they there were no base to which to return. They wondered had the Dominion attacked the base regardless of the plans that they had concerning the Hawaii, the Shoeman and the others.

The mood on the ship grew ever more tense as the hours progressed.

'Anything on the long-range scans?'

Shirer was to Devereaux's right. He checked his console. Marcus had been standing behind the tactical station as, yet another, system's check had been completed.

'Nothing.' He said. 'There's still ten hours until we come within range of the station without relying on subspace.'

'No, Devereaux ran a hand along his armrest, 'we can't use subspace until we have an idea of what we're heading towards. A battle at this stage would be disastrous.'

'I have something!' Barret was on Ops.

'What is it Ensign?'

A pause. 'A ship, traveling at warp nine, and coming straight at us.'

'Any identification?'

'No, it's too far.'

Shirer had called up the data that was going to Barret's station. 'It's big whoever it is.'

'And not alone,' added Hope, 'there's two... No, three... wait.'

They waited.

She lifted her head and spoke in a hushed tone. 'There are ten ships coming our way, estimated time to intercept is two minutes and ten seconds.'

'Red alert!' Devereaux was up, he pulled at his tunic and faced the viewscreen. 'Put them on screen as soon as they come into range. Maximum magnification.'

Around him the crew busied themselves. Ohlson saw the tactical officer tap her console. The lights blinked to indicate that phasers were ready and so too were the torpedoes.

'Ready message Hawaii One,' ordered Marcus. He walked to the front of the bridge near the chair allocated to him.

'Ready sir,' answered Barret.

'Hawaii One?' Devereaux was looking at him, so too was Shirer.

'It's a compact version of our adventures, I have it coded and set to be transmitted on all frequencies, just in case we didn't arrive to deliver it.'

'Good idea Commander, wait until the last moment before sending.'

'Yes sir.'

The trio stood watching the viewscreen. As yet there was nothing close enough to see.

'It's the Fourth!' Hope's voice rose as she finished her sentence.

'The Fourth?' asked Devereaux.

'Yes sir,' responded Barret smiling, 'it's the Fourth Fleet. They are hailing us. Admiral Slaney wants to speak to the commanding officer.'

'On screen.'

The star field vanished to be replaced by the figure of Admiral Oban Slaney standing on a ship's bridge. 'Captain Devereaux?'

'Good to see you Admiral.'

'And you John, what is the status of your ship?' he sounded suspicious.

'We were captured Admiral, but the squad you sent to rescue us succeeded, at least Commander Ohlson's section did.

It's a long story Admiral, I look forward to telling you.' To Shirer he said. 'Stand down from Red alert, and prepare to meet the Fourth.'

The Hawaii was boarded five minutes later by contingents of the fleet. All those who had been on board was removed and separated. It was routine, the survivors, all eighty-nine were interviewed by Starfleet Intelligence. During that period they arrived at Starbase 283.

The next day, Captain Devereaux, Commander Shirer and Commander Ohlson were on board the U.S.S. Osprey. Admiral Slaney, Captain Jackman, and Vice Admiral Garcia were seated in the ship's ready room.

The Osprey was docked and from the windows of the room Ohlson could see part of the base's superstructure and the silhouette of a Galaxy class ship as it patrolled around the station.

'What happened when we left?'

Jackman looked at Slaney, the admiral nodded that she could continue.

'The Osprey continued to the space lines as we had said, but there was some ships waiting. We were attacked and narrowly avoided being destroyed.

The Helsinki arrived in time to assist.' She named another nebula class ship that Ohlson knew was in the group of ships that had found the Hawaii. 'And we came home.

We realized that meant in all likelihood that Captain Lu had walked into another trap. Not knowing how the Dominion knew so much then we were reluctant to send more craft into the region.

Then we got Commander Ohlson's message.

It was taken as misinformation at first, but on examination we discovered the link between Commodore Nilis, Captain Lu, Lieutenant Overend and Ensign Curro.' She paused before continuing. 'They were part of a group that believed Starfleet interests would be better served with an alliance with the Dominion.' Another pause. 'Several other officers have been arrested, they had betrayed a lot of secrets but fortunately they had only been operational for a short time.

Commodore Nilis was their leader.

It was,' she indicated Ohlson, ' as you realized, they wanted the Hawaii and the Shoeman so they could initiate an attack. The Shoeman was to lead and the Hawaii to drag along behind to distract us, then they would launch an attack on this base. They believed that once we lost the Fourth Fleet that we would be more open to their opinions in regards to an alliance.

By all our accounts the plan was a good one, we had no idea of the kind of force they had assembled on the Demon, that alone was a major threat, with the Shoeman and the Hawaii they could well have gotten close enough to deliver a knockout blow.'

'What,' asked Devereaux, 'were their plans for us?'

'The Hawaii's crew?'

'Yes.'

'They hoped to convert some, and perhaps use the rest as bargaining chips in any later agreements. Nilis we believe told them that once 283 had fallen that a token prisoner release would send the correct message to Starfleet Headquarters.'

'Well,' Shirer shuffled in his seat, 'that explains why we got the minimal of mistreatment.'

'Yes,' added the admiral, 'it does.'

'Is there any further danger from the Gokija expanse?'

'No Commander Ohlson, we have sent several Galaxy class starships into the region and they found the prison, as well as the Demon, it would appear that the Dominion loses were extensive enough to encourage a retreat.

We have mined and placed sensor beckons in the area. I don't think they'll be quick to try a similar ploy.'

The meeting broke up with the officers being told to tell their crew to make use of the next week as recreation, and then they would be reassigned their duties.

Shirer walked part of the way back to his cabin with Ohlson. 'I hear they will be putting us all on the newly refitted Hawaii.' He was watching Ohlson's reaction.

'I can't say I didn't like the idea of my own command. They were a great crew, they'd be an asset to wherever posting they went.'

'I know we didn't get off to a good start Marcus, but personally I hope you get the Hawaii. I would like to continue to work with you.'

Marcus smiled. 'Thank you, as a second best I guess you'd do.'

They laughed and Shirer walked into his cabin. 'Oh, will I see you in the bar later?'

'Yes, you will, but kindly don't interrupt.'

Shirer looked confused then he laughed again. 'What, another date? Hasn't she caught on yet?'

The door closed. Ohlson walked the rest of the way to his own quarters. He was in good humour even with the loss of his command, he could do a lot worse than be second officer, the third in command, of a Nebula class starship, and anyway, he had date.

An hour later the door chimed.

'Come in.'

The door parted, Ohlson was standing outside, and he was holding a rose and a bottle of wine. He took a step inside.

Helen Tsokova wore a clinging dark blue dress. She smiled at him.

He held up the bottle. 'I'm told it's the best they have on board outside the admiral's personal stock.'

'Then,' she said, 'I suppose we'd better sample it and see.'

The week had passed quickly, it was no longer a secret that the Hawaii was being refitted and readied. Ships had even arrived from other starbases carrying personnel that had been assigned to the vessel.

'Why haven't they said anything?' Hope was standing in the bar looking out of the window. She was able to see the traffic to and from the Hawaii in its dock.

'Perhaps they are keeping us at the posts they gave us on the way home so don't think they have to tell us anything,' Smith sat opposite her.

Around the table was the rest of the ex-crew of the Augustus, all except Mc Sorley and Ohlson.

'Hollis is in security,' said Tambecki, 'said to me yesterday that he'd been told by Shirer.'

Sia took a sip of the beverage before him. 'Sam, Ensign Lockhead hasn't been notified yet, and she's still working with Doctor Rolands.'

'Commander Ohlson isn't the happiest about getting the third officer,' Colimo sat between T'sella and Mico.

'He was a good captain, you'd think they'd give him his own command again after what he did at the Demon.' Mico sounded a little angry at the injustice he felt was occurring.

'He was a good commander, but they probably have a shortage of ships,' pointed out T'sella.

'He's been spending a lot of time with the engineer.' Smith looked for a waiter so he could order another round.

'I like her, and they look good together,' Barret wondered whether she wanted to be Ops officer of a Nebula, a Roman, or a lawyer.

'I wish they'd hurry up and get around to it.' Kausler looked at the small figure of another shuttle heading to the Hawaii.

No one had to ask her to elaborate, they all felt left out of developments.

The shuttle that Kausler had watched moved into the bay of the Hawaii. Gone was the debris and mess that had greeted Ohlson the last time he arrived here. The place was clean and busy as engineers and fitters worked to make the ship ready for departure.

He knew that the Hawaii was leaving port in two days, he didn't know yet where he was going to be when that happened.

Mc Sorley was beside him. 'Do you reckon this is it then?'

'Yes, I think this is when we get the assignments.'

She thought for a moment as they left the bay and walked to the turbolifts. 'Is it a good sign that the admiral wishes to see us together?'

'No idea,' Ohlson had pondered that point too.

'You know Commander,' she looked at him, 'I wish we still had the Augustus.'

He smiled as the doors opened. 'So do I Deborah, so do I.'

'This way,' a lieutenant ushered them into the quarters of the commander of the Fourth Fleet. Admiral Slaney was alone. He switched off the console he had been working on.

'Good day Deborah, Marcus, please take a seat.'

They sat and waited.

He was watching them. 'I have called you here to discuss your assignments.'

They looked grim faced.

'I suppose you think you're headed for the Hawaii?'

_Suppose?_ Deborah resisted the urge to glance at Marcus.

'Well I was wondering, in light of what you did at the prison, if you would consider forming a new section attached to Starfleet Intelligence here with the Fourth Fleet.' He paused.

'Exactly what are you suggesting sir?' asked Ohlson.

'We are creating a Special Salvage Squadron, S3 we've named it, for infiltrating and recovering any material or personnel that may disappear behind enemy lines.

Sometimes it just isn't possible to send in a Galaxy or a Fleet, so we want a small group to do the reconnaissance and recovery if possible.

That would be you.'

Ohlson looked at the smiling Mc Sorley then back to Slaney. 'On the Hawaii?'

He shrugged. 'Sort of.'

'Sir?'

'Well,' he stood up, 'come here.' He waved them over to the window and indicated that they should look out.

They did.

Ohlson saw the starbase and several smaller vessels in transit. But one wasn't, one ship was static.

Mc Sorley was grinning. 'I thought it was being scrapped.'

Slaney glanced out at the sleek hull of the U.S.S. Augustus. 'No, it's in surprising repair considering what it went through. It has been upgraded, some thicker plating in parts,' he waved away the details, 'go ask an engineer about what they've done.

Anyway, the Augustus will, if you accept, be your command, you will be attached to the Hawaii and that will be your base. They will be the ship that carries you close to your target site.'

Mc Sorley nudged Ohlson in the ribs.

'What?'

'Tell him.'

'Oh, yes sir, we accept.

On one condition.'

'Condition?'

'Yes sir, that we have the original crew as a first option.'

Slaney paused. 'What do you mean 'first option'?'

'I'm hoping sir, that they want to return to the Augustus, some might prefer their placement to be on a Nebula or a Galaxy.'

Slaney beamed. 'Then I suggest you go find out if you have a crew and then report back to me.'

They had another drink.

'I don't want to be on the Hawaii,' it was Kausler who spoke. 'I'm putting in a transfer request to a Starbase, I could do some good working on static defense measures.'

'I'm sure you could,' Ohlson and Mc Sorley had entered the bar and approached the table unseen.

'Commander.' Kausler seemed surprised and embarrassed at being overheard.

'It'd also be inconvenient Yeoman,' put in Mc Sorley.

A waiter arrived before anyone could ask a question. He deposited a drink for everyone at the table. They all took their drinks and looked confused.

'A toast, if you want it,' Ohlson held his glass up.

The rest followed amid the odd look lacking comprehension.

'To the new crew of the U.S.S. Augustus, if they want it.'

Sia was looking at him. 'The Augustus?'

'Yes it's been repaired, and they want a crew, you.

Does anyone wish to remain for the time being with the Augustus?'

'Are you the commander?' asked Smith.

'Yes, and she,' he indicated Mc Sorley, 'is the first officer.'

'I'm in,' answered Barret.

'Me too,' Mico gave a hoop of delight.

'I will be there,' responded T'sella.

'I kinda liked it there, I'll stay,' put in Alex.

'You'll need a tactical officer.' Kausler opined.

'True.'

'And a Science Officer?' added Colimo.

Ohlson agreed.

'Pilot?' Tambecki was grinning.

'Yes.'

'Hmm,' grunted Singh, 'just when I was getting to like the idea of having a massive engine that won't break down on me, 'I suppose I'll be there too.'

'We have the whole crew then' Mc Sorley clinked her glass against Ohlson and Singh's. 'To the Augustus!'

They drank to their past, and to their future.


End file.
